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LOVELL’S LIBRARYi-CATALOGUE. 


1 , 

2 

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4. 

5. 

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8 . 
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11 . 

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13. 

14. 

15. 

16. 

17. 

18. 

19. 

20 . 
21 . 
22 . 

23. 

24. 

25. 

26. 

27. 

28. 
29. 
80. 

31. 

32. 

33. 

34; 

35. 

36. 

37. 

38. 

39. 

40. 

41. 

42. 

43. 

44. 

45. 

46. 

47. 

48. 

49. 
60. 


51. 

52. 

53. 

54. 

55. 
50. 

67. 

68 . 
69. 
60. 
61. 


Hyperion, by H. W, Longfellow. .20 
Outre-Mer, by H. W. Longfellow. 20 
The Happy Boy, by BjOrnson — 10 

Arne, by BjOrnson 10 

Frankenstein, by Mrs. Shelley. , . 10 

The Last of the Mohicans 20 

C'lytie, by Joseph Hatton 20 

The Moonstone, by ( ollins,P’tI.10 
The Moonstone, by Collins, P’tll. 10 
01 1 ver Twist, by Charles Dickens . 20 
The Coming Race, by Lytton, ... 10 

Leila, by Lord Lytton 10 

The Three Spaniards, by Walker. 20 
TheTricke or the GreeksUn veiled 20 
L’ Abbe Constantin, byHaleYy..20 
Freckles, by R. F Redclifl.. ..20 
The Dark Colleen, by Harriett Jay.20 
They Were Married 1 by Walter 

Besaiit and James Rice 10 

Seekers after God, by F«rrar 20 

The Spanish Nun, byDeQuincey.lO 

The Green Mountain Boys 20 

Fleurette, by Eugene Scribe £0 

Second Thoughts, by Broughton. 20 
The New Magdalen, by Collins. .20 

Divorce, by Margaret Lee 20 

Life of Washington, by Henley. .20 
Social Etiquette, by Mrs. Seville. 15 
Single Heart and Double Face.. 10 

Irene, by CarlDetlef 20 

Vice Versa, by P. Anetey 20 

Ernest Mai tra vers, by Lord Lytton20 
The Haunted House and Calderon 
the Courtier, by Lord .Lytton.. 10 
John Halifax, by Miss Muiock. . .20 

800 Leagues on the Amazon 10 

The Cryptogram, by Jules Verne. 10 

Life of Marion, by Horry 20 

Paul and Virginia 10 

Tale of Two Cities, by Dickens. .2 > 

The Hermits, by Kingsley 20 

An Adventure in Thulje, aijid Mar- 
riage of Moira Fergitj!, Black . 10 

A Marriage in High Lif.e*' 20 

Robin, by Mrs. Parr.*.*. .* 20 

TwoonaTower, byThos Hardy.20 

Rasselas, by Samuel Johnson 10 

Alice; or, the Mysteries, being 
Part II. of Ernest Maltravers. .20 
Duke of Kandos, by A. Mathey...20 

Baron Munchausen 10 

A Princess of Thule, by Black. ,20 
The Secret Despatch, by Grant, 20 
Early Days of Christianity, by- 

Canon Farrar, D D., Part I 20 

Early Days of Christianity, Pt. 11.20 
Vicar of Wakefield, by Goldsmith. 10 
Progress and Poverty, by Henry 

George 20 

The Spy, by Cooper 20 

East Lynne, by Mrs. Wood... 20 
A Strange Story, by Lord Lytton. . . 20 

Adam Bede, by Eliot, Part 1 15 

Adam Bede, Part II 15 

The Golden Shaft, by Gibbon — 20 

Portia, by The Duchess 20 

Last Days of Pompeii, by Lytton. .20 
The Two Duchesses, by Mathey. .20 
Tom Brown’s School Days 20 


62. The Wooing O’t, by Mrs. Alex- 

ander, Parti 15 

The Wooing O’t, Part II 15 

63. The Vendetta, by Balzac 20 

64. Hypatia, by Chas. Kingi-ley.P’tl.lS 
Hypatia, by Kingsley, Part II — 15 

65. Selma, by Mrs. J.G. Smith 15 

66. Margaret and her Bridesmaids. .20 

67. Horse Shoe Robinson, Part I — 15 
Horae Shoe Robinson, Part II. . .15 

68. Gulliver’s Travels, by Swift 20 

69. Amos Barton, by George Eliot... 10 

70. The Berber, by W. E. Mayo 20 

71. Silas Marner, oy George i:iiot. . . 10 

72. The Queen of the County 20 

73. Life of Cromwell, by Hood... 15 

74. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. 20 

75. Child’s History of England 20 

76. Molly Bawn, by The Duchess. . .20 

77. Pilione, by William BergsOe 15 

78. Phyllis, by The Duchess 20 

79. Romola, by Geo. Eliot, Part I. , .15 
Romola, by Geo. Eliot, Part II. .15 

80. Science in Short Chapters 20 

81. Zenoni, by Lord Lytton 20 

82. A Daughter of Heth 20 

83. The Right and Wrong Uses of 

the Bible, R. Hebcr Newton. ..20 

84. Night and Mornirg, Pt. 1 15 

Night and Morning. Part II 15 

85. Shandon Bells, by Wm. Black. .20 

86. Monica, by the Duchess 10 

87. Heart and Science, by Collins. . .20 

88. The Golden Calf, by Braddon. . .20 

89. The Dean’s Daughter 20 

90. Mrs. Geoffrey, by The Duchess.. 20 

91. Pickwick Papers, Part 1 20 

Pickwick Papers, Part II 20 

92. Airy, Fairy Lilian, The Duchess. 20 

93. McLeod of Dare, by Wm. Black. 20 

94. Tempest Tossed, by Tilton P’tl 20 
Tempest Tossed, by Tilton, P’t II 20 

95. Letters from High Latitudes, by 

Lord Dufferin 20 

96. Gideon Fleyce, by Lu^ 

97. India and Ceylon, by E. Hteckel. .20 

98. The Gypsy Queen 20 

99. The Admiral’s Ward 20 

100. 1' import, by E. L. Bynner, P’t I . .15 
Nimport, byE. L. Bynner, P'tII.15 

101. Harry Holbrooke 20 

102. Tritons, by E. L. Bynner, P’tl. .. 15 
Tritons, by E. L. Bynner, P t II . . 15 

103. Let Nothing You Dismay, by 

Walter Besant 10 

104. Lady Audley’s Secret, by Miss 

M. E. Braddon 20 

105. Woman’s Place To-day, by Mrs. 

Lillie Devereux Blake 20 

106. Diinallan, by Kennedy, Parti. . ,15 
Dunallan, by Kennedy, Part II. .15 

107. Housekeeping and Home-mak- 

ing. by Marion Ilarland 15 

108. No New Thing, by W. E. Norris. 20 

109. The Spoopendyke Papers 20 

110. False Hopes, by Goldwin Smith. 15^ 

111. Labor and Capital 20 

112. Wanda, by Ouida, Part 1 15 

Wanda, by Ouida, Part II 16 . 


THE RED ERIC. 


CHAPTEK I. 

The Tale begins with the engaging of a “ Tail ” — and the Captain 
delivers his ophiions on Various Subjects. 

Captain Dunning stood with his back to the 
fire-place in the back-parlor of a temperance 
coffee-house in a certain town on the eastern sea- 
board of America. 

The name of that town is unimportant, and, for 
reasons with which the reader has nothing to do, 
we do not mean to disclose it. 

Captain Dunning, besides being the owner and 
commander of a South-sea whale-ship, was the 
owner of a large burly body, a pair of broad shoul- 
ders, a pair of immense red whiskers that met 
under his chin, a short, red little nose, a large firm 
mouth, and a pair of light-blue eyes, which, ac- 
cording to their owner’s mood, could flash like 
those of a tiger, or twinkle sweetly like the eyes of 
a laughing child. But his eyes seldom flashed ; 
they more frequently twinkled, for the captain was 
the very soul of kindliness and good-humor. Yet 

(7 ) 


8 


THE RED ERIC. 


he was abrapt and sharp in his manner, so that 
superficial observers sometimes said he was hasty 

Captain Dunning was, so to speak, a sample 
of three primary colors — red, blue, and yellow — 
a walking fragment, as it were, of the rainbow. 
His hair and face, especially the nose, were red ; 
his eyes, coat, and pantaloons were blue, and 
his waistcoat was yellow. 

At the time we introduce him to the reader, he 
was standing, as we have said, with his back to 
the fireplace, although there was no fire, the 
weather being mild, and with his hands in his 
breeches’ pockets. Having worked with the said 
hands for many long years before the mast, until 
he had at last worked himself behind the mast, in 
other words, on to the quarter-deck and into pos- 
session of his own ship, the worthy captain con- 
ceived that he had earned the right to give his 
hands a long rest ; accordingly he stowed them 
away in his pockets and kept them there at aU 
times, save when necessity compelled them to 
draw them forth. 

“ Very odd,” remarked Captain Dunning, look- 
ing at his black straw hat which lay on the table 
before him, as if the remark were addressed to 
it — “ very odd if, having swallowed the cow, I 
should now be compelled to worry at the tail.” 

As the black straw hat made no reply, the Cap- 
tain looked up at the ceiling, but not meeting 
with any response from that quarter, he looked 


HIEING A “tail.” 


9 


out at the window and encountered the gaze of a 
seaman flattening his nose on a pane of glass, 
and looking in. 

The captain smiled. “ Ah ! here’s a tail at 
last,” he said, as the seaman disappeared, and in 
another moment reappeared at the door with his 
hat in his hand. 

It may be necessary, perhaps, to explain that 
Captain Dunning had just succeeded in engaging 
a first-rate crew for his next whaling voyage 
(which was the “cow” he professed to have 
swallowed), with the exception of a cook (which 
was the “ tail,” at which he feared he might be 
compelled to worry). 

“ You’re a cook, are you ? ” he asked, as the 
man entered and nodded. 

“ Yes, sir,” answered the “ tail,” pulling his 
forelock. 

“ And an uncommonly ill-favored rascally- 
looking cook you are,” thought the captain ; but 
he did not say so, for he was not utterly regard- 
less of men’s feelings. He merely said, “ Ah ! ” 
and then followed it up with the abrupt question — 

“ Do you drink.” 

“ Yes, sir, and smoke too,” replied the “ tail,” 
Ji some surprise. 

“ Very good ; then you can go,” said the cap- 
tain, shortly. 

“ Eh ! ” exclaimed the man. 

^ You can go,” repeated the captain. “ You 


10 


THE RED ERIC. 


wont suit. My ship is a temperance ship, and all 
the hands are teetotallers. I have found from ex- 
perience that men work better, and speak better, 
and in every way act better, on tea and coffee 
than on spirits. I don’t object to their smoking; 
but I don’t allow drinkin’ aboard my ship ; so 
you wont do, my man. Good morning. 

The tail gazed at the captain in mute amaze- 
ment. 

“Ah! you may look,” observed the captain, 
replying to the gaze ; “ but you may also mark 
my words, if you will. I’ve not sailed the ocean 
for thirty years for nothin’. I’ve seen men in hot 
seas and in cold — on grog and on tea — and 1 
know that coffee and tea carry men through the 
hardest work better than grog. I also know that 
there’s a set o’ men in this world who look upon 
teetotallers as very soft chaps — old wives, in fact. 
Very good (here the captain waxed emphatic, 
and struck his fist on the table). Now look here, 
young man. Pm an old wife, and my ship’s 
manned by similar old ladies ; so you wont suit. 

To this the seaman made no reply, but feeling 
doubtless, as he regarded the masculine specimen 
Defore him, that he would be quite out of his 
element among such a crew of females, he thrust 
a quid of tobacco into his cheek, put on his hat, 
turned on his heel, and left the room, shutting the 
door after him with a bang. 

He had scarcely left when a tap at the dooi 
announced a second visitor. 


HIRING A “ TAIL.’ 


11 


Hum ! Another ‘ tail/ I suppose. Come in.” 

If the new comer was a “ tail,” he was decid- 
edly a long one, being six feet three in his stock- 
ings at the very least. 

“ You wants a cook, I b’lieve ? ” said the man, 
pulling off his hat. 

“ I do. Are you one ? ” 

‘‘ Yes, I jist guess I am. Bin a cook for fifteen 
year.” 

“ Been to sea as a cook ? ” inquired the cap- 
tain. 

“ I jist have. Once to the South Seas, twice 
to the North, an’ once round the world. Cook 
all the time. I’ve roasted, and stewed, and 
grilled, and fried, and biled, right round the ’arth, 
I have.” 

Being apparently satisfied with the man’s ac- 
count of himself. Captain Dunning put to him 
the question — “ Do you drink ? ” 

“ Ay, like a fish ; for I drinks nothin’ but 
water, I don’t. Bin born and raised in the State 
of Maine, d’ye see, an’ never tasted a drop all 
my life.” 

“ Very good,” said the captain, who plumed 
himself on being a clever physiognomist, and 
had already formed a good opinion of the map 
“ Do you ever swear ? ” 

“ Never, but when I can’t help it.” 

“ And when’s that ? ” 

“ When I’m fit to bu’st” 


12 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Then/’ replied the captain, ‘‘ you must learn 
to bu’st without swearin’, ’cause I don’t allow it 
aboard my ship.” 

The man evidently regarded his questioner as 
a very extraordinary and eccentric individual ; 
but he merely replied, “ I’ll try ; ” and after a little 
further conversation, an agreement was .come to 
the man was sent away with orders to repair on 
board immediately, as every thing was in readi- 
ness to “ up anchor and away next morning.” 

Having thus satisfactorily and effectually dis- 
posed of the “ tail,” Captain Dunning put on his 
hat very much on the back of his head, knit his 
brows, and pursed his lips firmly, as if he had 
stHl some important duty to perform ; then, quit- 
ting the hotel, he traversed the streets of the town 
with rapid strides. 


THE COTTAGE. 




CHAPTER II. 

Impoi’tant Personages are introduced to the Header. — The Captain 
makes Insane Resolutions, fights a Battle, and Conquers. 

In the centre of the town whose name we 
have declined to communicate, there stood a 
house — a small house — so small that it might 
have been more appropriately, perhaps, styled a 
cottage. This house had a yellow-painted face, 
with a green door in the middle, which might 
have been regarded as its nose, and a window 
on each side thereof, which might have been 
considered its eyes. Its nose was, as we have 
said, painted green, and its eyes had green Ve- 
netian eyelids, which were half shut at the mo- 
ment Captain Dunning walked up to it, as if it 
were calmly contemplating that seaman’s gen- 
eral appearance. 

There was a small garden in front of the house, 
surrounded on three sides by a low fence. Cap- 
tain Dunning pushed open the little gate, walked 
up to the nose of the house, and hit it several 
severe blows with his knuckles. The result was 
that the nose opened, and a servant girl appeared 
in the gap. 

“ Is your mistress at home ? ” inquired the cap- 
tain. 


2 


14 


THE RED ERIC. 


‘‘ Guess she is — both of ’em ! ” replied the 
girl. 

“ Tell both of ’em I’m here, then,” said the 
captain, stepping into the little parlor without 
further ceremony ; “ and is my little girl in ? ” 

“ Yes, she’s in.” 

“ Then send her here, too, an’ look alive, lass.” 
So saying. Captain Dunning sat down on the 
sofa, and began to beat the floor with his right 
foot somewhat impatiently. 

In another second a merry little voice was 
heard in the passage, the door burst open, a fair- 
haired girl of about ten years of age sprang into 
the room, and immediately commenced to stran- 
gle her father in a series of violent embraces. 

“ Why, Ailie, my darling, one would think you 
had not seen me for fifty years, at least,” said the 
captain, holding his daughter at arm’s length, in 
order the more satisfactorily to survey her. 

“ It’s a whole week, papa, since you last came 
to see me,” replied the little one, striving to get 
at her father’s neck again, “ and I’m sure it seems 
to me like a hundred years at least.” 

As the child said this she threw her little arms 
round her father, and kissed his large weather- 
beaten visage aU over — eyes, mouth, nose, chin, 
whiskers, and, in fact, every attainable spot. 
She did it so vigorously, too, that an observer 
would have been justified in expecting that her 
soft delicate cheeks would be lacerated by 


THE HEROINE. 


15 


the rough contact; but they were not The 
result was a heightening of the color, nothing 
more. Having concluded this operation, she laid 
her cheek on the captain’s, and endeavored to 
clasp her hands at the back of his neck, but this 
was no easy matter. The captain’s neck was a 
remarkably thick one, and the garments about 
that region were voluminous ; however, by dint 
of determination, she got the small fingers inter- 
twined, and then gave him a squeeze that ought 
to have choked him, but it didn’t : many a strong 
man had tried that in his day, and had failed 
signally. 

“ You’ll stay a long time with me before you go 
away to sea again, wont you, dear papa ? ” asked 
the child, earnestly, after she had given up the 
futile effort to strangle him. 

“ How like ! ” murmured the captain, as if to 
himself, and totally unmindful of the question, 
while he parted the fair curls and kissed Ailie’s 
forehead. 

“ Like what, papa ? ” 

“ Like your mother — your beloved mother,’ 
replied the captain, in a low sad voice. 

The child became instantly grave, and she 
looked up in her father’s face with an expression 
of awe, while he dropped his eyes on the floor. 

Poor Alice had never known a mother’s love. 
Her mother died when she was a few weeks old, 
and she had been confided to the care of two 


16 


THE REl) ERIC. 


maiden aunts ■— excellent ladies, both of them , 
good beyond expression ; correct almost to a 
fault; but prim, starched, and extremely self- 
possessed and judicious, so much so that they 
were injudicious enough to repress some of the 
best impulses of their natures, under the impres- 
sion that a certain amount of dignified formality 
was essential to good breeding and good morals 
in every relation of life. 

Dear, good, starched Misses Dimning ! if they 
had had their way, boys would have played 
cricket and football with polite urbanity, and girls 
would have kissed their playmates with gentle 
solemnity. They did their best to subdue little 
Alice, but that was impossible. The child woula 
rush about the house at all unexpected and often 
inopportune seasons, like a furiously insane kitten, 
and she would disarrange their collars too violent- 
ly every evening when she bade them good-night. 

Alice was intensely sympathetic. It was quite 
enough for her to see any one in tears, to cause her 
to open up the flood-gates of her eyes and weep — 
she knew not and she cared not why. She threw 
her arms round her father’s neck again, and hug- 
ged him, while bright tears trickled like diamonds 
from her eyes. No diamonds are half so precious 
or so difficult to obtain as tears of genuine sym- 
pathy ! ” 

“ How would you like to go with me to the 
whale-fishery ? ” inquired Captain Dunning, some- 


THE STARCHED AUNTS. 


i7 

what abruptly, as he disengaged the child’s arms 
and set her on his knee. 

The tears stopped in an instant, as Alice leap- 
ed, with the happy facility of childhood, totally 
out of one idea and thoroughly into another. 

“ Oh, I should like it so much!” 

“ And how much is ‘ so ’ much, Ailie ? ” in- 
quired the captain. 

Ailie pursed her mouth, and looked at her 
father earnestly, while she seemed to struggle to 
give utterance to some lleetiAg idea. 

“ Think,” she said, quickly, think something 
good as much as ever you can. Have you 
thought ? ” 

“ Yes,” answered the captain, smiling. 

“ Then,” continued Ailie, “ it’s twenty thou- 
sand million times as much as that, and a great 
deal more ! ” 

The laugh with which Captain Dunning re- 
ceived this curious explanation of how much his 
little daughter wished to go with him to the 
whale-fishery, was interrupted by the entrance 
of his sisters, whose sense of propriety induced 
them to keep aU visitors waiting at least a quar- 
ter of an hour before they appeared, lest they 
should be' charged with unbecoming precipitancy. 

“ Here you are, lassies ; how are ye ? ” cried 
the Captain, as he rose and kissed each lady on 
the cheek, heartily. 

The sisters did not remonstrate. They kUsiV 
2 * 


18 


THE RED ERIC. 


that their brother was past hope in this respect 
and they loved him, so they suffered it meekly. 

Having admitted that they were well — as 
well, at least, as could be expected, considering 
the cataract of “ trials ” that perpetually descend- 
ed upon their devoted heads — they sat down as 
primly as if their visitor were a perfect stranger, 
and entered into a somewhat lengthened conver- 
sation as to the intended voyage, commencing, 
of course, with the weather. 

“ And now,” said the captain, rubbing the 
crown of his straw hat in a circular manner, as 
if it were a beaver, ‘‘ I’m coming to the point.” 

Both ladies exclaimed, “ Whaf point, George?” 
simultaneously, and regarded the captain with a 
look of anxious surprise. ^ 

“ The point,” replied the captain, “ about which 
I’ve come here to-day. It ain’t a point o’ the com- 
pass; nevertheless, I’ve been steerin’ it in my 
mind’s eye for a considerable time past. The 
fact is (here the captain hesitated), I — I’ve made 
up my mind to take my little Alice along with 
me this voyage.” 

The Misses Dunning wore unusually tall caps, 
and their countenances were by nature uncom- 
monly long, but the length to which they grew 
on hearing this announcement was something 
preternaturaUy awful. 

“ Take Ailie to sea ! ” exclaimed Miss Martha 
Dunning, in horror. 


THE WILD PROPOSAL. 


19 


“ To fish for whales ! ’’ added Miss Jane Dun- 
ning, in consternation. 

Brother, you’re mad ! ” they exclaimed to- 
gether, after a breathless pause ; and you’ll do 
nothing of the kind,” they added, firmly. 

Now, the manner in which the Misses Dunning 
received this intelligence greatly relieved their 
eccentric brother. He had fully anticipated, and 
very much dreaded, that they would at once burst 
into tears, and being a tender-hearted man he 
knew that he could not resist that without a hard 
struggle. A flood of woman’s tears, he was wont 
to say, was the only sort of salt-water storm he 
hadn’t the heart^o face. But abrupt opposition 
was a species of challenge which the captain 
always accepted at once — off-hand. No human 
power could force him to any course of action. 

In this latter quality Captain Dunning was 
neither eccentric nor singular. 

I’m sorry you don’t like my proposal, my 
dear sisters,” said he ; “ but I’m resolved.” 

“ You wont ! ” said Martha. 

“ You sha’n’t ! ” cried Jane. 

“ I will ! ” replied the captain. 

There was a pause here of considerable length 
during which the captain observed that Martha’s 
nostrils began to twitch nervously. Jane, observ- 
ing the fact, became similarly affected. To the 
captain’s practised eye these symptoms were as 
good as a barometer. He knew that the storm 


THE RED ERIC. 


SO 

was coming, and took in all sail at once (men 
tally) to be ready for it. 

It came ! Martha and Jane Dunning were foi 
once driven from the shelter of their wonted pro- 
priety — they burst simultaneously into tears, and 
buried their respective faces in their respective 
pocket-handkerchiefs, which were immaculately 
clean and had to be hastily unfolded for the 
purpose. 

“ Now, now, my dear girls,” cried the captain, 
starting up and patting their shoulders, while 
poor little Ailie clasped her hands, sat down on a 
footstool, looked up in their faces — or, rather, 
at the backs of the hands which covered their 
faces — and wept quietly. 

“ It’s very cruel, George — indeed it is,” sobbed 
Martha ; “ you know how we love her.” 

“ Very true,” remarked the obdurate captain ; 
“ but you donH know how I love her, and how sad 
it makes me to see so little of her, and to think 
that she may be learning to forget me — or, at 
least,” added the captain, correcting himself as 
Ailie looked at him reproachfully through her 
tears — “ at least, to do without me. I can’t 
bear the thought. She’s all I have left to me, 
and ” 

“ Brother,” interrupted Martha, looking hastily 
up, “ did you ever before hear of such a thing as 
taking a little girl on a voyage to the whale- 
fishing ? ” 


PROFANE ORIGINALITY. 


21 


“ No, never,” replied the captain ; ** what haa 
that got to do with it ? ” 

Both ladies held up their hands and looked 
aghast. The idea of any man venturing to do 
what no one ever thought of doing before was so 
utterly subversive of aU their ideas of propriety — 
such a desperate piece of profane originality — 
that they remained speechless. 

“ George,” said Martha, drying her eyes, and 
speaking in tones of deep solemnity, “ did you 
ever read ‘ Robinson Crusoe ? ’ ” 

“ Yes I did, when I was a boy ; an’ that wasn’t 
yesterday.” 

“ And did you,” continued the lady in the same 
sepulchral tone, “ did you note how that man — 
that beacon, if I may use the expression, set up 
as a warning to deter all wilful boys and men from 
reckless, and wicked, and wandering, and obstre- 
perous courses — did you note, I say, how that man, 
that beacon, was shipwrecked, and spent a dreary 
existence, on an uninhabited and dreadful island, 
in company with a low, dissolute, black, unclothed 
companion called Friday.” 

“ Yes,” answered the captain, seeing that she 
paused for a reply. 

“ And all,” continued Martha, “ in consequence 
of his resolutely, and obstinately, and wilfully 
and wickedly going to sea ! ” 

“ Well, it couldn’t have happened if he hadn’t 
gone to sea, no doubt.” 


22 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Then,” argued Martha, “ will you, can you, 
George, contemplate the possibility of your only 
daughter coming to the same dreadful end ? ” 

George, not exactly seeing the connection, 
rubbed his nose with his forefinger, and replied 

— “ Certainly not.” 

“ Then you are bound,” continued Martha, in 
triumph, “ by all that is upright and honorable, 
by all the laws of humanity and propriety^ to give 
up this wild intention — and you must ! ” 

“ There,” cried Miss Jane, emphatically, as if 
the argument were unanswerable — as indeed it 
was, being incomprehensible. 

The last words were unfortunate. They merely 
dveted the captain’s determination. 

“ You talk a great deal of nonsense, Martha,” 
he said, rising to depart. “ I’ve fixed to take her, 
so the sooner you make up your minds to it the 
better.” 

The sisters knew their brother’s character too 
weU to waste more time in vain efforts; but 
Martha took him by the arm, and said, earnestly 

— “ Will you promise me, my dear George, that 
when she comes back from this voyage, you wiU 
never take her on another ? ” 

“ Yes, dear sister,” replied the captain, some- 
what melted, “ I promise that.” 

Without another word Martha sat down and 
held out her arms to Ailie, who incontinently 
rushed into them. Propriety fled for the nonce, 


NATUKE ALLOWED TO HAVE HEE WAY. 23 

discomfited. Miss Martha’s curls were disaiTanged 
beyond repair, and Miss Martha’s collar was 
crushed to such an extent that the very laundress 
who had washed and starched and ironed it would 
have utterly failed to recognize it. Miss Jane 
looked on at these improprieties in perfect indif- 
ference — nay, when, after her sister had hao 
enough, the child was handed over to her, she 
submitted to the same violent treatment withouf 
a murmur. For once Nature was allowed to 
have her way, and all three had a good hearty 
satisfactory cry ; in the midst of which Captain 
Dunning left them, and proceeding on board his 
ship, hastened the preparations for his voyage to j 
the Southern Seas. 


24 


THE KED ERIC. 


CHAPTER III. 

The Tea-Party. — Accidents and Incidents of a minor kind. — Glynn 
Proctor gets into trouble. 

On the evening of the day in which the fore- 
going scenes were enacted, the Misses Dunning 
prepared a repast for their brother and one or 
two of his officers, who were to spend their last 
evening in port there, and discuss various impor- 
tant and unimportant matters in a sort of semi- 
convivio-business way. 

An event of this kind was always of the deep- 
est interest and productive of the most intense 
anxiety to the amiable though starched sisters ; 
first, because it was of rare occurrence ; and 
second, because they were never quite certain that 
it would pass without some unhappy accident, 
such as the upsetting of a tea-cup or a kettle, or 
the scalding of the cat, not to mention visitors’ 
legs. They seemed to regard a tea-party in the 
light of a fire-arm — a species of blunderbuss — 
a thing which, it was to be hoped, would “ go ofi 
well ; ” and certainly, if loading the table until it 
groaned had any thing to do with the manner of its 
going off,” there was every prospect of its doing 
BO with preeminent success upon that occasion. 

But besides the anxieties inseparable from the 


PREPARATIONS FOR A TEA-PARTY. 


25 


details of the pending festivities, the Misses Dun- 
ning were overwhelmed and weighed down with 
additional duties consequent upon their brother’s 
sudden and unexpected determination. Little 
Ailie had to be got ready for sea by the follow- 
ing morning ! It was absolute and utter insanity ! 
No one save a madman or a sea-captain could 
have conceived such a thing, much less have car- 
ried it into effect tyrannically. 

The Misses Dunning could not attempt any 
piece of duly or work separately. They always 
acted together, when possible ; and might, in fact, 
without much inconvenience, have been born 
Siamese twins. Whatever Martha did, Jane at- 
tempted to do or to mend ; wherever Jane went, 
Martha followed. Not, by any means, that one 
thought she could improve upon the work of the 
other; their conduct was simply the result of a 
desire to assist each other mutually. When 
Martha spoke, Jane echoed or corroborated ; and 
when Jane spoke, Martha repeated her sentences 
word for word in a scarcely audible whisper — 
not after the other had finished, but during the 
course of the remarks. 

With such dispositions and propensities, it is 
not a matter to be wondered at that the good 
ladies, while arranging the tea-table, should sud- 
denly remember some forgotten article of Ailie’s 
wardrobe, and rush simultaneously into the child’s 
bedroom to rectify the omission ; or, when thus 

3 


26 


THE RED ERIC. 


engaged, be filled with horror at the thought of 
having left the buttered toast too near the fire in 
the parlor. 

It is really quite perplexing,” said Martha, 
sitting down with a sigh, and regarding the tea- 
table with a critical gaze ; “ quite perplexing. 
Pm sure I don’t know how I shall bear it. It is 
too bad of George — darling Ailie — (dear me, 
Jane, how crookedly you have placed the urn) 
— it is really too bad.” 

“ Too bad, indeed ; yes, isn’t it ? ” echoed 
Jane, in reference to the captain’s conduct, while 
she assisted Martha, who had risen to readjust 
the urn. 

“ Oh ! ” exclaimed Martha, with a look of 
horror. 

“ What? ” cried Jane, who looked and felt 
equally horrified, although she knew not yet the 
cause. 

“ The eggs ! ” 

‘‘ The eggs ? ” 

“ Yes, the eggs. You know every one of the 
last dozen we got was bad, and we’ve forgot to 
send for more,” said Martha. 

“ For more ; so we have ! ” cried Jane ; and 
both ladies rushed into the kitchen, gave simul- 
taneous and hurried orders to the servant-girl, 
and sent her out of the house impressed with an 
undefined feeling that life or death depended on 
the instant procuring of two dozen fresh eggs. 


ARRIVAL OF THE COMPANY. 


27 


It may be as well to remark here, that the 
Misses Dunning, although stiff, and starched, and 
formal, had the power of speeding nimbly from 
room to room, when alone and when occasion 
required, without in the least degree losing any 
of their stiffness or formality, so that we do not 
use the terms “ rush,” “ rushed,” or “ rushing,” 
inappropriately. Nevertheless, it may also be 
remarked, that they never acted in a rapid or 
impulsive way in company^ however small in 
numbers or unceremonious in character the com- 
pany might be — always excepting the servant- 
girl and the cat, to whose company, from long 
habit, they had become used, and therefore in- 
different. 

The sisters were on their knees, stuffing vari- 
ous articles into a large trunk, and Ailie was 
looking on, by way of helping, with very red and 
swollen eyes, and the girl was still absent in quest 
of eggs, when a succession of sounding blows 
were administered to the green door, and a num- 
ber of gruff voices were heard conversing without. 

“ There ! ” cried Martha and Jane, with bitter 
emphasis, looking in each other’s faces as if to 
say, “We knew it. Before that girl was sent 
away for these eggs, we each separately and 
privately prophesied that they would arrive, and 
that we should have to open the door. And you 
see, so it has happened, and we are not ready ! ” 

But there was no time for remark. The case 


28 


THE RED ERIC. 


was desperate. Both sisters felt it to be so, and 
acted accordingly, while Ailie, having been for- 
bidden to open the door, sat down on her trunk, 
and looked on in surprise. They sprang up, 
washed their hands simultaneously in the same 
basin, with the same piece of soap broken in two ; 
dried them with the same towel, darted to the 
mirror, put on two identically similar clean tall 
caps, leaped down stairs, opened the door with 
slow dignity of demeanor, and received their vis- 
itors in the hall with a calmness and urbanity of 
manner that contrasted rather strangely with 
their flushed countenances and heaving bosoms. 

“ Hallo ! Ailie ! ” exclaimed the captain, as his 
daughter pulled down his head to be kissed. 
“ Why, you take a fellow all aback, like a white 
squall. Are you ready, my pet ? Kit stowed and 
anchor tripped ? Come this way, and let us talk 
about it. Dear me, Martha, you and Jane look as 
if you had been running a race, eh ? Here are my 
messmates come to tallt a bit with you. My sisters 
Martha and Jane — Dr. Hopley.” (Dr. Hopley 
bowed politely.) “ My first mate, Mr. Millons.” 
(Mr. Millons also bowed somewhat loosely) ; “ and 
Rokens — Tim Rokens, my chief harpooner.” 
(Mr. Rokens pulled his forelock, and threw back 
his left leg, apparently to counterbalance the bend 
in his body.) “ He did’nt want to come ; said 
he war’nt accustomed to ladies’ society ; but 1 
told him you wax’nt ladies — a — I don’t mean 


THE CAT ENJOYS A PKELIMINAKY MEAL. 29 


that — not ladies o’ the high-flyin’ fashionable 
sort, that give themselves airs, you know. Come 
along, Ailie.” 

While the captain ran on in this strain, hung 
up his hat, kissed Ailie, and ran his fingers through 
his shaggy locks, the Misses Dunning performed a 
mingled bow and curtsey to each guest as his 
name was mentioned, and shook hands with him, 
after which the whole party entered the parlor, 
where the cat was discovered enjoying a prelimi- 
nary meal of its own at one of the pats of butter. 
A united shriek from Martha and Jane, a nautical 
howl from the guests, and a rolled-up pocket- 
handkerchief from E,okens, sent that animal from 
the table as if it had received a galvanic shock. 

“ I ax yer parding, ladies,” said Mr. Rokens, 
whose aim had been so perfect that his handker- 
chief not only accelerated the flight of the cat, but 
carried away the violated pat of butter along 
with it. I ax yer parding, but them brutes is sich 
thieves — I could roast ’em alive, so I could.” 

The harpooner unrolled his handkerchief, and 
picking the pat of butter from its folds with his 
fiilgers, threw it into the fire. Thereafter he 
smoothed down his hair, and seated himself on the 
extreme edge of a chair, as near the door as pos- 
sible. Not that he had any intention whatever 
of taking to flight, but he deemed that position 
lo be more suited to his condition than any other. 

In a few minutes the servant girl returned with 

3 * 


30 


THE RED ERIC. 


the eggs. While she is engaged in boiling them, 
we shaU introduce Captain Dunning’s friends and 
messmates to the reader. 

Dr. Hopley was a surgeon, and a particular friend 
of the captain’s. He was an American by birth, 
but had travelled so much about the world that 
he had ceased to “ guess ” and “ calculate,” and 
to speak through his nose. He was a man about 
forty, tall, big-boned, and muscular, though not 
fat; and besides being a gentlemanly man, was 
a good-natured, quiet creature, and a clever 
enough fellow besides, but he preferred to laugh 
at and enjoy the jokes and witticisms of others 
rather than to perpetrate any himself. Dr. Hop- 
ley was intensely fond of travelling, and being 
possessed of a small independence, he indulged 
his passion to the utmost. He had agreed to go 
with Captain Dunning as the ship’s doctor, sim- 
ply for the sake of seeing the whale fishery of the 
South Seas, having already, in a similar capac- 
ity, encountered the dangers of the North. 

Dr. Hopley had few weaknesses. His chief 
one was an extravagant belief in phrenology. 
We would not be understood to imply that 
phrenology is extravagant; but we assert that 
the doctor’s belief in it was extravagant, assign- 
ing, as he did, to every real and ideal faculty of 
the human mind ‘ a local habitation and a name ’ 
in the cranium, with a corresponding depression 
or elevation of the surface to mark its where 


THE COMPANY. 


31 


abouts. In other respects he was a common- 
place sort of man. 

Mr. Millons, the first mate, was a short, hale, 
thick-set man, without any particularly strong 
points of character. He was about thirty-five, 
and possessed a superabundance of fair hair and 
whiskers, with a large, broad chin, a firm mouth, 
rather fierce-looking eyes, and a hasty, but by no 
means a bad temper. He was a trustworthy, 
matter-of-fact seaman, and a good officer, but 
not bright intellectually. Like most men of his 
class, his look implied that he did not under-esti- 
mate his own importance, and his tones were 
those of a man accustomed to command. 

Tim Rokens was an old salt ; a bluff, strong, 
cast-iron man, of about forty-five years of age, 
who had been at sea since he was a little boy, 
and would not have consented to live on dry 
land, though he had been “ offered command of a 
seaport town all to himself,” as he was wont to 
affirm emphatically* His visage was scarred 
and knotty, as if it had been long used to being 
pelted by storms — as indeed it had. There was 
a scar over his left eye and down his cheek, 
which had been caused by a slash from the cut- 
lass of a pirate in the China Seas ; but although 
it added to the rugged effect of his countenance, 
it did not detract from the frank, kindly expres« 
sion that invariably rested there. Tim Rokeiis 
had never been caught out of temper in his life. 


32 


THE RED ERIC. 


Men were wout to say he had no temper td lo^’ 
Whether this was true or no, we cannot presume 
to say, but certainly he never lost it. He was 
the best and boldest harpooner in Captain Dun- 
ning’s ship, and a sententious deliverer of his 
private opinion on all occasions whatsoever. 
When we say that he wore a rough blue pilot- 
cloth suit, and had a large black beard, with a 
sprinkling of silvery hairs in it, we have com- 
pleted his portrait. 

“ What’s come of Glynn ? ” inquired Captain 
Dunning, as he accepted a large cup of smoking 
tea with one hand, and with the other handed a 
plate of buttered toast to Dr. Hopley, who sal 
next him. 

“ I really cannot imagine,” replied Miss Martha. 

“ No, cannot imagine,” whispered Miss Jane. 

“ He promised to come, and to be punctual,” 
continued Miss Martha (‘ Punctual,’ whispered 
Miss J.) ;‘‘but something seems to have detained 
him. Perhaps ” 

Here Miss Martha was brought to an abrupt 
pause by observing that Mr. Rokens was about 
to commence to eat his egg with a teaspoon. 

“ Allow me, Mr. Rokens,” she said, handing 
that individual an ivory egg-spoon. 

“ Oh, cer’nly, ma’am. By all means,” replied 
Rokens, taking the spoon and handing it to Miss 
Jane, under the impression that it was intended 
for her. 


CONVEKSATION ON EGGS. 


33 


“ I beg pardon, it is fpr yourself, Mr. Rokens,’' 
said Martha and Jane together. 

Thank’ee, ma’am,” replied Rokens, growing 
red, as he began to perceive he was a little “ off 
his course” somehow. “I’ve no occasion foi 
tivo^ an’ this one suits me oncommon.” 

“ Ah ! you prefer big spoons to little ones, my 
man, don’t you ? ” said Captain Dunning, coming 
to the rescue. “ Let him alone, Martha, he’s 
used to take care of himself. Doctor, can you 
teU me now, which is easiest of digestion — a 
hard egg or a soft one ? ” 

Thus appealed to, Dr. Hopley paused a mo- 
ment and frowned at the teapot, as though he 
were about to tax his brain to the uttermost in 
the solution of an abstruse question in medical 
science. 

“ Well now,” he replied, stirring his tea gently* 
and speaking with much deliberation, “ that de- 
pends very much upon circumstances. Some 
digestions can manage a hard egg best, others 
find a soft one more tractable. And then the 
state of the stomach at the time of eating has to 
be taken into account. I should say now, that 
my little friend Ailie here, to judge from the rosy 
color of her cheeks, could manage hard or soft 
eggs equally well ; couldn’t you, eh ? ” 

Ailie laughed, as she replied, “ I’m sure I don’t 
know, Doctor Hopley ; but I like soft ones best.” 
To this, Captain Dunning said, “ Of course 


34 


THE RED ERIC. 


you do, my sensible little pet;” although it 
would be difficult to show wherein lay the sen si 
bility of the preference, and then added — 
“ There’s Kokens, now ; wouldn’t you, Doctor — 
judging from his rosy, not to say purple cheeks 
— conclude that he wasn’t able to manage even 
two eggs of any kind ? ” 

“ Wot, me ! ” exclaimed Mr. Rokens, looking up 
in surprise, as indeed he well might, having just 
concluded his fourth, and being about to com- 
mence his fifth egg, to the no small anxiety of 
Martha and Jane, into whose limited and innocent 
minds the possibility of. such a feat had never 
entered. “ Wot, me I W’hy, Capting, if they was 
biled as hard as the head of a marline-spike ” 

The expanding grin on the captain’s face, and 
a sudden laugh from the mate, apprised the bold 
harpooner at this point of his reply that the cap- 
^tain was jesting, so he felt a little confused, and 
sought relief by devoting himself assiduously to 
egg No. 5. 

It fared ill with Tim Rokens that evening that 
he had rashly entered into ladies’ society, for he 
was a nervous man in refined company, though 
cool and firm as a grounded iceberg when in the 
society of his messmates, or when towing with 
the speed of a steamboat in the wake of a sperm- 
whale. 

Egg No. 5 proved to be a bad one. Worse 
ffian that, egg No. 5 happened to belong to that 


AN AWKWAKD EXPLOSION. 


35 


peculiar class of bad eggs which go off” 
with a little crack when hit with a spoon, and 
sputter their unsavory contents around them. 
Thus it happened, that when Mr. Rokens, feeling 
confused, and seeking relief in attention to the 
business then in hand, hit egg No. 5 a smart 
blow on the top, a large portion of its contents 
spurted over the fair white table-cloth, a small 
portion fell on Mr. Rokens’s vest, and a minute 
yellow globule thereof alighted on the fair Mar- 
tha’s hand, eliciting from that lady a scream, 
and, as a matter of course, an echo from Jane in 
the shape of a screamlet. 

Mr. Rokens flushed a deep Indian-red, and his 
nose assumed a warm blue color instantly. 

“ Oh ! ma’am, I ax yer parding.” 

“ Pray don’t mention it — a mere accident. 
I’m so sorry you have got a bad Oh I ” 

The little scream with which Miss Martha in- 
terrupted her remark, was caused by Mr. Rokens 
(who had just observed the little yellow globule 
above referred to), seizing her hand, and wiping 
away the speck with the identical handkerchief 
that had floored the cat and swept away the pat 
of butter. Immediately thereafter, feeling heated, 
he wiped the perspiration from his forehead, and 
unwittingly transferred the spot thereto in the 
form of a yellow streak, whereat Aflie and the 
first mate burst into an uncontrollable fit of laugh- 
ter. Even Miss Martha smiled, although she 


36 


THE RED ERIC. 


rather objected to jesting, as being a dangerous 
amusement, and never laughed at the weaknesses 
or misfortunes of others, however ludicrous they 
might be, when she could help it. 

“ How can you, brother ? she said, reproach- 
fully, shaking her head at the captain, who was 
winking at the doctor with one eye in a most ob- 
streperous manner. “ Do try another egg, Mr. Ro- 
kens ; the others, I am sure, are fresh. I cannot 
imagine how a bad one came amongst them.’' 

“ Ah, try another, my lad,” echoed the captain. 
“ Pass ’em up this way, Mr. Millons.” 

“ By no manner o’ means ; I’ll eat this ’un ! ” 
replied the harpooneer, commencing to eat the 
bad egg with apparent relish. ‘‘ I like ’em this 
way — better than nothin’, anyhow. Bless ye 
marm, ye’ve no notion wot sort o’ things I’ve 
lived on aboard ship ” 

Bokens came to an abrupt pause in conse- 
quence of the servant girl, at a sign from her 
mistresses (for she always received duplicate 
orders), seizing his plate and carrying it off bodily. 
It was immediately replaced by a clean one and 
a fresh egg. While Rokens somewhat nervously 
tapped the head of No. 6, Miss Martha, in order 
to divert attention from him, asked Mr. MiUons 
if sea-fare was always salt junk and hard biscuit ? 

“ Oh, no, madam,” answered the first mate. 

“ We’ve sometimes salt pork, and vegetables now 
and agin ; and pea-soup, and plum-duff ” 


SEA-FARE. 


37 


“ Plum-dufF, Ailie,” interrupted the captain, ir 
order to explain, “is just a puddin’ with few 
plums and fewer spices in it. Something like s 
white-painted cannon-shot, with brown* spots oi 
it here and there.” 

“ Is it good ? ” inquired AUie. 

“ Oh, ain’t it ! ” remarked Mr. Rokens, who had 
just concluded No. 6, and felt his self-possession 
somewhat restored. “ Yes, miss, it is ; but it 
ain’t equal to whale’s-brain fritters, it ain’t ; 
them’s first chop.” 

“ Have w^hales got brains ? ” inquired Miss 
Martha, in surprise. 

“ Brains ! ” echoed Miss Jane, in amazement. 

“ Yes, madam, they ’ave,” answered the first 
mate, who had hitherto maintained silence, but 
having finished tea was now ready for any amount 
of talk ; “ and what’s more remarkable stiU, 
they’ve got several barrels of oil in their skulls 
besides.” 

“ Dear me ! ” exclaimed the sisters. 

“ Yes, ladies, capital oil it is, too ; fetches a 
’igher price hin the markit than the other sort.” 

“ By the by, Millons, didn’t you once fall • 
into a whale’s skull, and get nearly drowned in 
oil ? ” inquired the doctor. 

“ I did,” answered the first mate with the air 
of a man who regarded such an event as a mere 
trifle, that, upon consideration, might almost be 
4 


38 


THE RED ERIC. 


considered as rather a pleasant incident than 
otherwise in one’s history. 

“ Nearly drowned in oil ! ” exclaimed the sis- 
ters, while Ailie opened her eyes in amazement, 
and Mr. Rokens became alarmingly purple in the 
face with suppressed chuckling. 

“ It’s true,” remarked Rokens, in a hoarse 
whisper to Miss Martha, putting his hand up to 
his mouth, the better to convey the sound to her 
ears ; “ I seed him tumble in, and helped to haul 
him out.” 

“ Let’s have the story, MiUons,” cried the captain, 
pushing forward his cup to be replenished : “ it’s 
so long since I heard it, that I’ve almost forgotten 
it. Another cup o’ tea, Martha, my dear — not 
quite so strong as the last, and three times as 
sweet. I’ll drink ‘ Success to the cup that cheers, 
but don’t inebriate.’ Go ahead, Millons.” 

Nothing rejoiced the heart of Mr. Millons more 
than being asked to tell a story. Like most men 
who are excessively addicted to the habit, his 
stories were usually very long and very dry ; but 
he had a bluff good-natured way of telling them, 
that rendered his yarns endurable on shore, and 
positively desirable at sea. Fortunately for the 
reader, the story he was now requested to relate 
was not a long one. 

“ It ain’t quite a story he began — and in be- 
ginning he cleared his throat with emphasis, thrust 
his thumbs into the arm-holes of his vest, and tilted 


THE mate’s adventure. 


39 

his chair on its hind legs — “it ain’t quite a story ; 
it’s a hanecdote, a sort of hincident, so to speak, 
and this is ’ow it ’appened : — 

“ Many years ago, w’en I was a very young 
man, or a big boy, I was on a voyage to the 
South Seas after whales. Tim Rokens was my 
messmate then, and has bin so almost ever since, 
off and on. (Mr. Rokens nodded assent to this 
statement.) Well, we came up with a big whale, 
and fixed an iron cleverly in him at the first 
throw ” 

“ An iron ? ” inquired Miss Martha, to whose 
mind flat and Italian-irons naturally occurred. 

“ Yes, madam, an iron ; we call the ’arpoons 
irons. Well, away went the fish, like all alive ! 
not down, but straight for’ard, takin’ out the fine 
at a rate that nearly set the boat on fire, and away 
we went along with it. It was a chase, that. For 
six hours, off and on, we stuck to that whale, and 
pitched into ’im with ’arpoons and lances ; but he 
seemed to have the fives of a cat — nothin’ would 
kiU ’im. At last the ’arpooner gave him a thrust 
in the fife, an’ up went the blood and water, and 
the fish went into the flurries, and came nigh cap- 
sizin’ the boat with its tail as it lashed the water 
into foam. At last it gave in, and we had a four 
hours’ pull after that, to tow the carcase to the ship, 
for there wasn’t a cat’s-paw of wind on the water. 

“ W’en we came alongside, we got out the 
tackles, and before beginnin’ to flense (that means, 


40 


THE RED ERIC. 


ma^am, to strip off the blubber), we cut a hole in 
the top o’ the skull to get out the oil that was 
there ; for you must know that the sperm->whale 
has got a sort of ’ollow or big cavern in its ’ead, 
w’ich is full o’ the best oil, quite pure, that don’t 
need to be cleared, but is all ready to be baled 
out and stowed away in casks. Well, w’en the 
’ole was cut in its skull I went down on my knees 
on the edge of it to peep in, when my knees they 
slipped on the blubber, and in I went ’ead fore- 
most, souse into the whale’s skull, and began to 
swim for life in the oil. 

“ Of course I began to roar for ’elp like a bull, 
and Rokens there w’o ’appened to be near, ’e let 
down the hend of a rope, but my ’ands was so slippy 
with oil I couldn’t ketch ’old of it ; so ’e ’auls it 
up agin, and let’s down a rope with a ’ook at the 
hend, and I got ’old of this and stuck it into the 
waistband o’ my trousers, and gave the word, 
‘ ’Eave away, my ’earties ; ’ and sure enough so 
they did, and pulled me out in a trice. And that’s 
’ow it was ; and I lost a suit o’ clo’s, for nothing 
on ’arth would take the oil out, and I didn’t need 
to use pomatum for six months after.” 

“ No more you did,” cried Rokens, who had 
listened to the narrative with suppressed delight; 
“ no more you did. 1 never see sich a glazed rat 
as you wos when you corned out o’ that hole, in 
all my life ; an’ he wos jist like a’ eel ; it wos all 
we could do to keep ’old on ’im, marm, he was 
HO slippery.” 


GLYNN PROCTOR. 


41 


While the captain was laughing at the incident, 
and Rokens was narrating some of the minute de- 
tails in the half-unwilling yet half-willing ears of 
the sisters, the door opened, and a young man 
entered hastily and apologized for being late. 

“ The fact is. Miss Dunning, had I not prom- 
ised faithfully to come I should not have made 
my appearance at all to-night.” 

“ Why, Glynn, what has kept you, lad ? ” in- 
terrupted the captain. “ I thought you were a 
man of your word.” 

“ Ay, that’s the question, Capting,” said Ro- 
kens, who evidently regarded the new arrival with 
no favorable feelings : “ it’s always the way with 
them gentlemen saUors tiU they’re got into blue 
water and brought to their bearin’s.” 

Mr. Rokens had wisdom enough to give forth 
the last part of his speech in a muttered tone, for 
the youth was evidently a favorite with the cap- 
tain, as was shown by the hearty manner in 
which he shook him by the hand. 

Messmates, this is Glynn Proctor, a friend o’ 
mine,” said Captain Dunning, in explanation : “ he 
s going with us this voyage before the mast, so 
you’ll have to make the most of him as an equal 
to-night, for I intend to keep him in his proper 
place when afloat. He chooses to go as an ordi- 
nary seaman, against my advice, the scamp ; so 
I’U make him keep his head as low as the rest 
when aboard. You’ll have to keep k'me better, 
4 * 


42 


THE BED ERIC. 


too, than you have done to-night, lad,” continued 
the captain, giving his young friend a slap on the 
shoulder. “ What has detained you, eh ? ” 

“ Necessity, Captain,” replied the youth, with a 
smile, as he sat down to table with an off-hand 
/feasy air that savored of recklessness ; “ and I am 
prepared to state, upon oath if need be, that 
necessity is not ‘ the mother of invention.’ If she 
had been, she would have enabled me to invent 
a way of escape from my persecutors in time to 
keep my promise to Miss Dunning.” 

“ Persecutors, Glynn!” exclaimed Martha; ‘‘to 
whom do you refer ? ” 

“ To the police of this good city.” 

“ Police ! ” echoed the captain, regarding his 
young friend seriously, while the doctor and the 
first mate and Tim Rokens listened in some sur- 
prise. 

“ Why, the fact is,” said Glynn, “ that I have 
just escaped from the hands of the police, and if it 
had not been that I was obliged to make a very 
wide detour, in order to reach this house without 
being observed, I should have been here long ago.” 

“ Boy, boy, your hasty disposition will bring 
you into serious trouble one of these days,” said 
the captain, shaking his head. “ What mischief 
have you been about ? ” 

“ Ay, there you go — it’s my usual fate,” cried 
Glynn, laughing. “ If I chance to get into a 
scrape, you never think of inquiring whether it was 
my fault or my misfortune. This time, however, 


OUlt ECERO* 


43 


it was my misfortune, and if Miss Dunning will 
oblige me with a cup of tea, I’ll explain how it 
happened. 

“ Little more than two hours ago I left the ship 
to come here to tea, as I had promised to do. 
Nikel Sling, the long-legged cook you engaged this 
morning, went ashore with me. As we walked up 
the street together, I observed a big porter passing 
along with a heavy deal plank on his shoulder. 
The street was somewhat narrow and crowded at 
that part, and Sling had turned to look in at a 
shop-window just as the big feUow came up. The 
man shouted to my shipmate to get out o’ the way, 
but the noise in the street prevented him from 
hearing. Before I could turn to touch the cook’s 
arm, the fellow uttered an oath and ran the end 
of the plank against his head. Poor Sling was 
down in an instant. Before I well knew what I 
was about, I hit the porter between the eyes and 
down he went with a clatter, and the plank above 
him. In a moment three policemen had me by 
the collar. I tried to explain, but they wouldn’t 
listen. As I was being hmried away to the lock- 
up, it flashed across me that I should not only lose 
my tea and your pleasant society this evening, 
but be prevented from sailing to-morrow, so I 
gave a sudden twist, tripped up the man on my 
left, overturned the one on my right, and bolted 

“ They ran well, the rascals, and shouted like 
maniacs, but I got the start of ’em, dived dowi? 
one street, up another, into a bv-lane, over a back 


u 


THE RED ERIC. 


garden wall, in at the back-door of a house and 
out at the front, took a round of two or three 
miles, and came in here from the west ; and, 
whatever other objections there may be to the 
whole proceeding, I cannot say that it has spoil- 
ed my appetite.’’ 

“ And so, sir,” said , Captain Dunning, “ you 
call this your ‘ misfortune ’ ? ” 

“ Surely, Captain,” said Glynn, putting down 
his cup and looking up in some surprise — sure- 
ly, you cannot blame me for punishing the rascal 
who behaved so brutally, without the slightest 
provocation, to my shipmate ? ” 

“ Hear, hear ! ” cried Rokens, involuntarily. 

“ I do blame you, lad,” replied the captain, 
seriously. “ In the first place, you have no right 
to take the law into your own hands. In the 
second place, your knocking down the maii did 
no good whatever to your shipmate ; and in the 
third place, you’ve got yourself and me and the 
ship into a very unsatisfactory scrape.” 

Rokens’ face, which had hitherto expressed 
approval of Glynn’s conduct, began to elongate 
as the captain went on in this strain ; and the 
youth’s recklessness of manner altogether disap- 
peared as he inquired, “ How so. Captain ? I 
have escaped, as you see ; and poor Sling, of 
course, was not to blame, so he’ll be ah safe 
aboard, and well, I hope, by this time.” 

“ There you’re mistaken, boy. They will have 
secured Sling and made him tell the name, of his 


GLYNN IN TROUBLE. 


45 


ship, and also the name of his pugna(‘ious com- 
rade.” 

“ And do you think he’d be so mean as to 
tell ? ” asked Glynn, indignantly. 

“ You forgot that the first act in this nice little 
melodrama was the knocking down of Sling, so 
that he could not know what happened after, 
and the police would not be so soft as to tell him 
why they wanted such information until aftei 
they had got it.” 

Poor Glynn looked aghast, and Rokens was 
overwhelmed. 

“ It seems to me, Fd better go and see about 
this,” said Millons, rising and buttoning his coat 
with the air of a man who had business to trans- 
act and meant to transact it. 

‘‘ Right, Millons,” answered the captain. “ Fm 
sorry to break up our evening so soon, but we 
must get this man aboard by hook or crook as 
speedily as possible. You had better go too, 
doctor. Rokens and ,I will take care of this 
young scamp, who must be made a nigger of in 
order to be got on board, for his face, once seen 
by these sharp limbs of justice, is not likely soon 
to be forgotten.” 

Glynn Proctor was indeed a youth whose per- 
sonal appearance was calculated to make a last- 
ing impression on most people. He was about 
eighteen years of age, but a strong, well-devel- 
oped muscular frame, a firm mouth, a large chin, 
and an eagle eye, gave him the appearance of 


46 


THE RED ERIC. 


being much older. He was above the middle 
height, but not tall, and the great breadth of his 
shoulders and depth of his chest made him ap- 
pear shorter than he really was. His hair was 
of that beautiful hue called nut-brown, and curl- 
ed close round his well-shaped head. He was a 
model of strength and activity. 

Glynn Proctor had many faults. He was hasty 
and reckless. He was unsteg^dy, too, and prefer- 
red a roving idle life to a busy one ; but he had 
redeeming qualities. He was bold and generous. 
Above all, he was unselfish, and therefore speed- 
ily became a favorite with all who knew him. 
Glynn’s history is briefly told. He was an Eng- 
lishman. His father and mother had died when 
he was a child, and left him in charge of an 
uncle, who emigrated to America shortly after 
his brother’s death. The uncle was a good man, 
after a fashion, but he was austere and unlovea- 
ble. Glynn didn’t like him ; so when he attained 
the age of thirteen, he quietly told him that he 
meant to bid him good-by, and go seek his for- 
tune in the world. The uncle as quietly told 
Glynn that he was quite right, and the sooner 
he went the better. So Glynn went, and never 
saw his uncle again, for the old man died while 
he was abroad. 

Glynn travelled far and encountered many 
vicissitudes of fortune in his early wanderings ; 
but he was never long without occupation, be- 
cause men liked his looks, and took him on trial 


Glynn’s early life and adventures. 17 


without much persuasion. To say truth, Glynn 
never took the trouble to persuade them. When 
his services were declined, he was wont to turn 
on his heel and walk away without a word of 
reply ; and not unfrequently he was called back 
and employed. He could tm-n his hand to 
almost any thing, but when he tired of it he threw 
it up and sought other work elsewhere. 

In the course of his peregrinations, he came to 
reside in the city in which our story finds him. 
Here he hadr become a compositor in the office 
of a daily newspaper, and, happening to be in- 
troduced to the Misses Dunning, soon became a 
favorite with them, and a constant visitor at 
their house. Thus he became acquainted with 
their brother. Becoming disgusted with the con- 
stant work and late hours of the printing-office, 
he resolved to join Captain Dunning’s ship, and 
take a voyage to southern seas as an ordinary 
seaman. Glynn and little AKce Dunning were 
great friends, and it was a matter of extreme 
delight to both of them that they were to sail 
together on this their first voyage. 

Having been made a nigger of, — that is, hav- 
ing had his face and hands blackened in order to 
avoid detection — Glynn sallied forth with the 
captain and Rokens to return to their ship, the 
Red Eric — which lay in the harbor, not ten min- 
utes’ walk from the house. 

They passed the police on the wharf without 
creating suspicion, and reached the vessel. 


18 


THE BED ERIC. 


CHAPTER IV. 

The Escape. 

“Well, Millons, what news ? ” inquired the 
captain, as he stepped on deck. 

“ Bad news, sir, I fear,” replied the first mate. 
“ I found, on cOming aboard, that no one knew 
any thing about Sling, so I went ashore at once 
and ’urried up to the hospital, w’ere, sure enough, 
I found ’im lyin’ with his ’ead bandaged, and 
lookin’ as if ’e were about gone. They asked me if 
I knew what ship ’e belonged to, as the police 
wanted to know. So I told ’em I knew well 
enough, but I wasn’t going to tell if it would get 
the poor fellow into a scrape. 

“ ‘ Why don’t you ask himself ? ’ says I. 

“ They told me ’e was past speakin’, so I tried 
to make ’im understand, but ’e only mumbled in 
reply. W’en I was about to go ’e seemed to 
mumble very ’ard, so I put down my ear to listen, 
and ’e w’ispcred quite distinct tho’ very low — 
‘ All right, my ’eartie. I’m too cute for ’em by a 
long way ; go aboard an’ say nothin’.’ So I came 
away, and I’ve scarce been five minutes aboard 
before you arrived. My own opinion is, that ’e’s 
erazed, and don’t know what ’e’s sayin’.” 


THE ESCAPE. 


49 


“ Oh ! ” ejaculated Captain Dunning. “ He 
said that^ did he ? Then my opinion is, that he’s 
not so crazed as you think. Tell the watch, Mr 
Millons, to keep a sharp look-out.” 

So saying, Captain Dunning descended to the 
cabin, and Rokens to the forecastle (in sea phra- 
seology the ‘fok-sail’), while Glynn Proctor pro- 
cured a basin and a piece of soap, and proceeded 
to rub the coat of charcoal off his face and hands. 

Half an hour had not elapsed when the watch 
on deck- heard a loud splash near the wharf, as it 
some one had fallen into the water. Immediately 
after, a confused sound of voices and rapid foot- 
steps was heard in the street that opened out upon 
the quay, and in a few seconds the end of the 
wharf was crowded with men who shouted to each 
other, and were seen in the dim starlight to move 
rapidly about as if in search of something. 

“ Wot can it be ? ” said Tim Rokens, in a low 
voice, to a seaman who leaned on the ship’s bul- 
warks close to him. 

“ Deserter, mayhap,” suggested the man. 

While Rokens pondered the suggestion, a light 
plash was heard close to the ship’s side, and a 
voice said, in a hoarse whisper, “ Heave us a rope, 
will ye. Look alive now. Guess I’U go under 
in two minnits if ye don’t.” 

“ Oho ! ” exclaimed Rokens, in a low impressive 
voice, as he threw over the end of a rope, and 
with the aid of the other members of the watch 
5 


50 


THE BED ERIC. 


hauled Nikel Sling up the side, and landed him 
dripping and panting on the deck. 

« W’y — Sling ! what* on airth ? ” ex- 

claimed one of the men. 

“ It’s lucky — I am — on airth — ” panted the 
tall cook, seating himself on the breach of one of 
the main-deck carronades, and wringing the water 
from his garments. “ An’ it’s well I’m not at the 
bottom o’ this ’ere ’arbor.” 

“ But where did ye come from, an’ why are 
they arter ye, lad ? ” inquired K-okens. 

« W’y ? cause they don’t want to part with me, 
and I’ve g’in them the slip, I guess.” 

When Nikel Sling had recovered himself so as 
to talk connectedly, he explained to his wonder- 
ing shipmates how that, after being floored in the 
street, he had been carried up to the hospital, and 
on recovering his senses, found Mr. Millons stand- 
ing by the bed-side, conversing with the young 
surgeons. The first words of their conversation 
showed him that something was wrong, so, with 
remarkable self-possession, he resolved to coun- 
terfeit partial delirium, by which means he con- 
trived to give the first mate a hint that all was 
right, and declined, without creating suspicion, 
to give any intelligible answers as to who he was 
or where he had come from. 

The blow on his head caused him considerable 
pain, but his mind was relieved by one of the 
young surgeons, who remarked to another, in 


THE ESCAPE. 


51 


going round the wards, that the “skull of thai 
long chap wasn’t fractured after all, and he had 
no doubt he would be dismissed cured in a day 
or two.” So the cook lay quiet until it was dark. 

When the house-surgeon had paid his last visit, 
and the nurses had gone their rounds in the acci- 
dent-ward, and no sound disturbed the quiet of 
the dimly-lighted apartment save the heavy fitful 
breathing and occasional moans and restless mo- 
tions of the sufferers, Nikel Sling raised himseK 
on his elbow, and glanced stealthily round on 
the rows of pain-worn and haggard countenances 
around him. It was a solemn sight to look upon, 
especially at that silent hour of the night. There 
were men there with almost every species of pain- 
ful wound and fracture. Some had been long 
there, wasting away from day to day, and now 
lay quiet, though suffering, from sheer exhaus- 
tion. Others there were who had been carried in 
that day, and fidgeted impatiently in their unre- 
duced strength, yet nervously in their agony ; or, 
in some cases, where the fear of death was on 
them, clasped their hands, and prayed in whispers 
for mercy to Him whose name perhaps they had 
almost never used before except for the purpose 
of taking it in vain. 

But such sights had little or no effect on the 
cook, who had rubbed hard against the world’s 
roughest sides too long to be easily affected by 
the sight of human suffering, especially when ex- 


52 


THE RED ERIC. 


hibited in men. He paused long enough to note 
that the nurses were out of the way or dozing, 
and then slipping out of bed, he stalked across 
the room like a ghost, and made for the outer 
gateway of the hospital. He knew the way, 
having once before been a temporary inmate of 
the place. He reached the gate undiscovered, 
tripped up the porter’s heels, opened the wicket, 
and fled toward the harbor, followed by the por- 
ter and a knot of chance passers-by. The pur- 
suers swelled into a crowd as he neared the har- 
bor. 

Besides being long-limbed, Nikel Sling was 
nimble. He distanced his pursuers easily, and, 
as we have seen, swam off and reached his ship 
almost as soon as they gained the end of the 
wharf. 

The above narration was made much more ab- 
ruptly and shortly than we have presented it, 
for oars were soon heard in the water, and it 
behoved the poor hunted cook to secrete himself 
in case they should take a fancy to search the 
vessel. Just as the boat came within a few 
yards of the ship he hastily went below. 

“ Boat, a-hoy ! ” shouted Tim Rokens; “wot 
boat’s that ? ” 

The men lay on their oars. 

“ Have you a madman on board your ship ? ” 
inquired the gatekeeper of the hospital, whose 
wrath at the unceremonious treatment he had 
received had not yet cooled down. 


THE PURSUEES BAFFLED. 


53 


‘‘ No,” answered Eokens, laying his arms on 
the bulwarks, and looking down at his ques- 
tioner with a sly leer ; “ no, we ha’nH, but you’ve 
got a madman aboord that boat.” 

“ Who’s that ? ” inquired the warder, who did 
not at first understand the sarcasm. 

“ Why, yourself, to be sure,” replied Rokens, 
an’ the sooner you takes yourself off, an’ comes 
to an anchor in a loo-natick asylum, the better 
for all parties consarned.” 

“ No, but I’m in earnest, my man ” 

“ As far as that goes,” interrupted the imper- 
turbable Rokens, “ so am 1.” 

“ The man,” continued the gatekeeper, “ has 
run out of the hospital with a smashed head, I 
calc’late, stark starin’ mad, and gone off the end 
o’ the w’arf into the water ” 

“ You don’t mean it ! ” shouted Rokens, start- 
ing with afiected surprise. “ Now you are a fine 
fellow, ain’t you, to be talkin’ here an’ wastin’ 
time while a poor feUer-mortal is bein’ drownded, 
or has gone and swummed off to sea — p’r’aps 
without chart, compass, or rudder ? HaUo, lads ! 
tumble up there ! Man overboard ! tumble up, 
tumble up ! ” 

In less than three minutes half-a-dozen men 
sprang up the hatchway, hauled up the gig which 
swung astern, tumbled into it, and began to puU 
wildly about the harbor in search of^ the drown- 
ing man. The shouts and commotion roused 

5 * 


54 


THE EED ERIC. 


the crews of the nearest vessels, and ere long 
quite a fleet of boats joined in the search. 

“ Wos he a big or a little feller ? ” inquired 
Rokens, panting from his exertions, as he swept 
up to the boat containing the hospital warder 
round which several of the other boats began to 
congregate. 

“ A big feUow, I guess, with legs like steeples. 
He was sloping when they floored him. A thief, 
1 expect he must ha’ bin.” 

‘‘ A thief ! ” echoed Rokens, in disgust ; “ why 
didn’t ye say so at first ? If *he’s a thief, he’s 
born to be hanged, so he’s safe and snug aboard 
his ship long ago, I’U be bound. Good night 
t’ye, friend, and better luck next time.” 

A loud laugh greeted the ears of the discom- 
fited warder as the crews of the boats dipped 
their oars in the water and pulled toward their 
respective ships. 

Next morning, about day-break, little Alice 
Dunning came on board her father’s ship, accom- 
panied by her two aunts, who, for once, became 
utterly and publicly regardless of appearances 
and contemptuous of aU propriety, as they sobbed 
on the child’s neck and positively refused to be 
comforted. 

Just as the sun rose, and edged the horizon 
with a gleam of liquid fire, the Red Eric spread 
her sails and stood out to sea. 


DAY-DKEAM. 


55 


CHAPTER V. 

Day-dreams and Adventures an^ong the Clouds. — A Chase, a Battle 
and a Victory. 

Early morning on the ocean ! There is poetry 
in the idea ; there is music in the very sound. 
As there is nothing new under the sun, probably 
a song exists with this or a similar title ; if not, 
we now recommend it earnestly to musicians. 

Ailie Dunning sat on the bulwarks of the Red 
Eric, holding on tightly by the mizen-shrouds, 
and gazing in open-eyed, open-mouthed, inex- 
pressible delight upon the bright calm sea. She 
was far, far out upon the bosom of the Atlantic 
now. Sea-sickness — which, during the first part 
of the voyage, had changed the warm pink of 
her pretty face into every imaginable shade of 
green — was gone, and the hue of health could 
not now be banished even by the rudest storm. 
In short, she had become a thorough sailor, and 
took special delight in turning her face to wind- 
ward during the wild storm, and drinking in the 
howling blast as she held on by the rigid shrouds, 
and laughed at the dashing spray — for little 
Ailie was not easily frightened. Martha and 
Jane Dunning had made it their first care to im- 
plant in the heart of their charge a knowledge of 


56 


THE RED ERIC. 


our Saviour’s love, and especially ol His tender- 
ness toward, and watchful care over, the l^mbs 
of His flock. Besides this, little Ailie was natu- 
rally of a trustful disposition. She had implicit 
confidence in the strength and wisdom of her 
father, and it never entered into her imagination 
to dream that it was possible for any evil to be- 
fall the ship which he commanded. 

But, although Ailie delighted in the storm, she 
infinitely preferred the tranquil beauty and rest 
of a “ great calm,” especially at the hour just be- 
fore sunrise, when the freshness, brightness, and 
lightness of the young day harmonized peculiarly 
with her elastic spirit. It was at this hour that 
we find her alone upon the bulwarks of the Red 
Eric. 

There was a deep, solemn stillness around, 
that irresistibly and powerfully conveyed to her 
mind the idea of rest. The long, gentle undula- 
tion of the deep did not in the least detract fi:om 
this idea. So perfect was the calm, that several 
masses of clouds in the sky, which shone with 
the richest saffron light, were mirrored in all their 
rich details as if in a glass. The faintest possi- 
ble idea of a line alone indicated, in one direc- 
tion, where the water terminated and the sky 
began. A warm golden haze suffused the whole 
atmosphere, and softened the intensity of the 
deep-blue vault above. . 

There was, indeed, little variety of object to 


CLOUDLAND SCENERY. 


57 


gaze upon — only the water and the sky. But 
what a world of delight did not Ailie find in that 
vast sky and that pure ocean, that reminded her 
of the sea .of glass before the great white throne, of 
which she had so often read in Revelation. The 
towering masses of clouds were so rich and thick, 
that she almost fancied them to be mountains and 
vaUeys, rocks and plains of golden snow. Nay, 
she looked so long and so ardently at the roUing 
mountain heights in the Sky above, and their mag- 
ical counterparts in the sky below, that she soon, 
as it were, thought herself into Fairyland, and 
began a regular journey of adventures therein. 

Such a scene at such an hour is a source of glad- 
some, peaceful delight to the breast of man in ever^ 
stage of life ; but it is a source of unalloyed, bound- 
ing, exhilarating, romantic, unspeakable joy, only 
in the years of childhood, when the mind looks 
hopefully forward, and before it has begun — as, 
alas ! it must begin, sooner or later — to gaze re- 
gretfully back. 

How long Ailie would have sat in motionless 
delight, it is difficult to say. The man at the wheel 
having nothing to do, had forsaken his post, and 
was leaning over the stern, either lost in reverie, or 
in the vain effort to penetrate with his vision the 
blue abyss to the bottom. The members of the 
watch on deck were either similarly engaged or had 
stowed themselves away to sleep in quiet corners 
among blocks and cordage. No one seemed in- 


58 


THE RED ERIC. 


dined to move or speak, and she would probably 
have sat there immovable for hours to come, had 
not a hand fallen gently on her shoulder, and by 
the magic of its simple contact scattered the bright 
dreams of Fairyland as the finger-touch destroys 
the splendor of the soap-bubble. 

“ Oh ! Glynn,” exclaimed Ailie, looking round 
and heaving a deep sigh; “ I’ve been away — far, 
far away — you can’t believe how far.” 

“ Away, Ailie ! Where have you have been ? ” 
asked Glynn, patting the child’s head as he leaned 
over the gunwale beside her. 

“ In Fairyland ! Up in the clouds yonder. Out 
and in, and up and down. Oh, you’ve no idea. 
Just look.” She pointed eagerly to an immense 
towering cloud that rose like a conspicuous land- 
mark in the centre of the landscape of the airy 
world above. “ Do you see that mountain ? ” 

“ Yes, Ailie ; the one in the middle, you mean, 
don’t you ? Yes, well ? ” 

“ Well,” continued the child, eagerly and hur- 
riedly, as if she feared to lose the thread of memory 
that formed the warp and woof of the delicate fab- 
ric she had been engaged in weaving ; “ well, I 
began there ; I went in behind it, and I met a fairy 
— not really, you know, but I tried to think I met 
one, so I began to speak to her, and then I made 
her speak to me, and her voice was so small and 
soft and sweet. She had on silver wings, and a 
star — a bright star in her forehead — and she car- 


ailib’s adventures in the clouds. 59 

ned a wand with a star on the top of it too. Sg 
I asked her to take me to see her kingdom, and I 
made ner say she would — and, do you know, 
Glynn, I really felt at last as if she didn’t wait 
for me to tell her what to say, but just went 
straight on, answering my questions, and putting 
questions to me in return. Wasn’t it funny ? 

“ Well, we went on, and on, and on — the fairy 
and me — up one beautiful mountain of snow and 
down another, talking all “the time so pleasantly, ^ 
until we came to a great dark cave ; so I made up 
my mind to make a Uon come out of it ; but the 
fairy said, ‘ No, let it be a bear ; ’ and immediately 
a great bear came out. Wasn’t it strange? It 
reaUy seemed as if the fairy had become real, and 
could do things of her own accord.” 

The child paused at this point, and looking with 
an expression of awe into her companion’s face, 
said, — “ Do you think, Glynn, that people can 
think so hard that fairies really come to them ? ” 

Glynn looked perplexed. 

‘‘ No, Ailie, I suspect they can’t — not because 
we can’t think hard enough, but because there 
are no fairies to come.” 

“ Oh, I’m so sorry ! ” replied the child, sadly. 

“ Why ? ” inquired Glynn. 

“ Because I love them so much — of course, I 
mean the good ones. I don’t like the bad ones — 
though they’re very useful, because they’re nice to 
kill, and punish, and make examples of, and all 
that, when the goo ^ ones catch them.” 


60 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ So they are,” said the youth, smiling. “ I 
never thought of that before. But go on with 
your ramble in the clouds.” 

“ Well,” began Ailie ; “ but where was I ? ” 

“ Just going to be introduced to a bear.” 

“ Oh yes ; well — the bear walked slowly away, 
and then the fairy called out an elephant, and 

after that a ’noceros ” 

“ A ’noceros ! ” interrupted Glynn ; “ what’s 
that ? ” 

“ Oh, you know very well. A beast with a 
thick skin hanging in folds, and a horn on its 
nose ” 

‘‘ Ah, a r^moceros — I see. Well, go on, Ailie.” 
“ Then the fairy told a camel to appear, and 
after that a monkey, and then a hippopotamus, 
and they aU came out one after another, and 
some of them went away, and others began to 
fight. But the strangest thing of all was, that 
every one of them was so like the pictures of wild 
beasts that are hanging in my room at home ! 
The elephant, too, I noticed, had his trunk broken 
exactly the same way as my toy elephant’s one 
was. Wasn’t it odd ? ” 

“ It was rather odd ? ” replied Glynn ; but 
where did you go after that ? ” 

“ Oh, then we went on, and on again, until we 
came to ” 

“ It’s your turn at the wheel, lad, ain’t it ? ” in- 
quired Mr. Millons, coming up at that moment, 


alie’s adventukes in the clouds. 61 


and putting an abrupt termination to the walk in 
Fairyland. 

“ It is, sir,” answered Glynn, springing quickly 
to the wheel, and relieving the man who had been 
engaged in penetrating the ocean’s depths. 

The mate walked forward ; the released sailor 
went below, and Ailie was again left to her soli- 
tary meditations ; for she was enough of a sailor 
now, in heart, to know that she ought not to talk 
too much to the steersman, even though the 
weather should be calm, and there was no call 
for his undivided attention to the duties of his 
post. 

While Nature was thus, as it were, asleep, and 
the watch on deck were more than half in the 
same condition, there was one individual in the 
ship whose faculties were in active play, whose 
“ steam,” as he himself would have remarked, 
“ was up.” This was the worthy cook, Nikel 
Sling, whose duties called him to his post at the 
gaUey-fire at an early hour each day. 

We have often thought that a cook’s life must 
be one of constant self-denial and exasperation of 
spirit. Besides the innumerable anxieties in ref- 
erence to such important matters as boiling over 
and over-boiling, being done to a turn, or over-done, 
or singed or burned, or capsized, he has the diur- 
nal misery of being the first human being, in his 
tittle circle of hfe, to turn out of a morning, and 
must therefore experience the discomfort — the 


62 


THE RED ERIC. 


peculiar discomfort — of finding things as they 
were left the night before. Any one who does 
not know what that discomfort is, has only to rise 
an hour before the servants of a household, whether 
at sea or on shore, to find out. Cook, too, has 
generally, if not always, to light the fire ; and that, 
especially in frosty weather, is not agreeable. 
Moreover, cook roasts himself to such an extent, 
and at meal-times, in nine cases out of ten, gets 
into such physical and mental perturbation, that 
he cannot possibly appreciate the luxuries he has 
been occupied all the day in concocting. Add to 
this, that he spends all the niorning in preparing 
breakfast ; all the forenoon in preparing dinner ; 
all the afternoon in preparing tea and supper, and 
all the evening in clearing up, and perhaps all the 
night in dreaming of the meals of the following 
day, and mentally preparing breakfast, and we 
think that we have clearly proved the truth of 
the proposition with which we started — namely, 
that a cook’s life must be one of constant self-de- 
nial and exasperation of spirit. 

But this is by the way, and was merely sug- 
gested by the fact that, while aU other creatures 
were enjoying either partial or complete repose, 
Nikel Sling was washing out pots and pans and 
kettles, and handling murderous-looking knives 
and two-pronged tormenters with a demoniacal 
activity that was quite appalling. 

Beside him, on a little stool close to the galley 


A cook’s miseries. 


63 


fire, sat Tim Rokens — not that Mr. Rokens was 
cold — far from it. He was, to judge from ap- 
pearances, much hotter than was agreeable. But 
Tim had come there, and sat down to hght his pipe, 
and being rather phlegmatic when not actively em- 
ployed, he preferred to be partially roasted for a 
few minutes to getting up again. 

“We ought,” remarked Tim Rokens, puffing at 
a little black pipe which seemed inclined to be 
obstinate, “ we ought to be gittin’ among the fish 
by this time. Many’s the one I’ve seed in them 
’ere seas.” 

“ I rather guess we should,” rephed the cook, 
pausing in the midst of his toils and wiping the 
perspiration from his forehead with an immense 
bundle of greasy oakum. “ But I’ve seed us keep 
dodgin’ about for weeks, I have, later in the year 
than this, without clappin’ eyes on a fin. What 
sort o’ baccy d’ye smoke, Rokens ? ” 

“ Dun know. Got it from a Spanish smuggler 
for an old clasp-knife. Why ? ” 

“’Cause it smells like rotten straw, an’ wont 
improve the victuals. Guess you’d better take 
yourself off, old chap.” 

“ Wot a cross-grained crittur ye are,” said Ro- 
kens, as he rose to depart. 

At that moment there was heard a cry that sent 
the blood tinghng to the extremities of every one 
on board the Red Eric. 

“ Thar she blows ! thar she blows ! ” shouted 
the man in the crow’s-nest. 


64 


THE RED ERIC. 


The crow’s-nest is a sort of cask, or nest, fixed 
at the top of the mainmast of whale ships, in 
which a man is stationed all day during the time 
the ships are on the fishing gi-ound, to look out 
for whales ; and the cry, “ Thar she blows,” an- 
nounced the fact that the look-out had observed 
a whale rise to the surface, and blow a spout of 
steamy water into the air. 

No conceivable event — unless perhaps the 
blowing-up of the ship itself — could have more 
effectually and instantaneously dissipated the 
deep tranquillity to which we have more than 
once referred. Had an electric shock been com- 
municated through the ship to each individual, 
the crew could not have been made to leap more 
vigorously and simultaneously. Many days be- 
fore, they had begun to expect to see whales. 
Every one was therefore on the qui vive^ so that 
when the well-known signal rang out like a start- 
ling peal in the midst of the universal stillness, 
every heart in the ship leaped in unison. 

Had an observant man been seated at the time 
in the forecastle, he would have noticed that from 
out of the ten or fifteen hammocks that swung 
from the beams, there suddenly darted ten or fif- 
teen pairs of legs which rose to the perpendicular 
position in order to obtain leverage to “fetch 
way.” Instantly thereafter, the said legs de- 
scended, and where the feet had been, ten or fif- 
teen heads appeared. Next moment the men 


THE FIRST WHALE. 


65 


were “tumbling up the fore-hatch to the deck, 
where the watch had already sprung to the boat- 
tackles. 

“ Where away ? ” sang out Captain Dunning, 
who was among the first on deck. 

“ Ofl the weather bow, sir, three points.” 

“ How far ? ” 

“ About two miles. There she blows ! ” 

“ Call aU hands,” shouted the captain. 

“ Starboard watch, ahay ! ” roared the mate, in 
that curious hoarse voice peculiar to boatswains 
of men-of-war. “ Tumble up, lads, tumble up ! 
Whale in sight ! Bear a hand, my hearties ! ” 

The summons was almost unnecessary. The 
“ starboard watch ” was — with the exception of 
one or two uncommonly heavy sleepers — already 
on deck pulling on its ducks and buckling its 
belts. 

“ Thar she breaches, thar she blows ! ” again 
came from the crow’s-nest in the voice of a Stentor. 

“ WeU done, Dick Barnes, you’re The first to 
raise the oil,” remarked one of the men ; implying 
by the remark, that the said Dick was fortunate 
enough to be the first to sight a whale. 

“ Where away, now ? ” roared the captain, who 
was in a state of intense excitement. 

“ A mile an’ a half to leeward, sir.” 

“ Clear away the boats,” shouted the captain. 

“ Masthead, ahoy ! D’ye see that whale now 

“ Ay, ay, sir. Thar she blows ! ” 

6 ^ 


66 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Bear a hand, my hearties,’^ cried the captain^ 
as the men sprang to the boats which were swing- 
ing at the davits. “ Get your tubs ini Clear 
your falls ! Look aHve, lads ! Stand by to lower ! 
All ready ! ” 

“ AU ready, sir.” 

“ Thar she blows ! ” came again from the mast- 
head with redoubled energy. “ Sperm-whales, 
sir ; there’s a school of ’em.” 

“ A school of them ! ” whispered Ailie, who had 
left her post at the mizen-shrouds, and now stood 
by her father’s side looking on at the sudden hub- 
bub in unspeakable amazement. “ Do whales go 
to school ? ” she said, laughing. 

‘‘ Out of the road, Ailie, my pet,” cried her 
father, hastily. “ You’ll get knocked over. Lower 
away, lads, lower away ! ” 

Down went the starboard, larboard, and waist 
boats as if the falls had been cut, and almost be- 
fore you could wink, the men literally tumbled 
over the side into them, took their places, and 
seized their oars. 

“ Here, Glynn, come with me, and I’ll show you 
a thing or two,” said the captain. “ Jump in, 
lad ; look sharp.” 

Glynn instantly followed Ms commander into 
the starboard boat, and took the aft oar. Tim 
Rokens, being the harpooner of that boat, sat at 
the bow-oar with his harpoons and lances beside 
him, and the whale-line coiled in a tub in the 
boat’s head. The caotain steered. 


THE CHASE. 


67 


And now commenced a race that taxed the 
boats’ crews to the utmost ; for it is always a mat- 
ter keenly contested by the different crews, who 
shall fix the first harpoon in the whale. The lar- 
board boat was steered by Mr. Millons, the first 
mate ; the waist boat by Mr. Markham, the second 
mate — the latter an active man of about five-and- 
twenty, whose size and physical strength were 
herculean, and whose disposition was somewhat 
morose and gloomy. 

“ Now, lads, give way! That’s it! that’s the 
way. Bend your backs, now! do bend your 
backs,” cried the captain, as the three boats sprang 
from the ship’s side, and made toward the near- 
est whale, with the white foana curling at their 
bows. 

Several more whales appeared in sight spout- 
ing in all directions, and the men were wild with 
excitement. 

“ That’s it ! Go it, lads ! ” shouted Mr. Millons, 
as the waist boat began to creep a-head. “ Lay 
it on ! give way ! What d’ye say, boys ; shall 
we beat ’em ? ” 

Captain Dunning stood in the stern-sheets of 
the starboard boat, almost dancing with excite- 
ment, as he heard these words of encouragement. 

“ Give way, boys ! ” he cried. “ They can’t do 
it ! That whale’s ours — so it is. Only bend 
your backs! A steady pull! Pull like steam- 
tugs ! That’s it ! Bend the oars ! Double ’em 
up ! Smash ’em in bits, do ! ” 


68 


THE RED ERIC. 


Without quite going the length of the captain’s 
last piece of advice, the men did their work nobly. 
They bent their strong backs with a will, and 
strained their sinewy arms to the utmost. Glynn, 
in particular, to whom the work was new, and 
therefore peculiarly exciting and interesting, al- 
most tore the row-locks out of the boat in his 
efforts to urge it on, and had the oar not been 
made of the toughest ash, there is no doubt that 
he would have obeyed the captain’s orders liter- 
ally, and have smashed it in bits. 

On they flew like racehorses. Now one boat 
gained an inch on the others, then it lost ground 
again as the crew of another put forth additional 
energy, and the- three danced over the glassy sea 
as if the inanimate planks had been suddenly en- 
dued with life, and inspired with the spirit that 
stirred the men. 

A large sperm-whale lay about a quarter of a 
mile ahead, rolling lazily in the trough of the sea. 
Toward this the starboard boat now pulled with 
incredible speed, leaving the other two gradually 
astern. A number of whales rose in various di- 
rections. They had got into the midst of a shoal, 
or school of them, as the whale-men term it ; and 
as several of these were nearer the other boats 
than the first whale was, they diverged toward 
them. 

“ There go flukes,” cried Rokens, as the whale 
raised its huge tail in the air and “ sounded ” — ■ 


THE BATTLE. 


69 


in other words, dived. For a few minutes, the 
men lay on their oars, uncertain in what direction 
the whale would come up again ; but their doubts 
were speedily removed by its rising within a few 
yards of the boat. 

“ Now, Rokens,” cried the captain ; “ now for 
it ; give him the iron. Give way, lads ; spring, 
boys. Softly now, softly.” 

In another instant the boat’s bow was on the 
whale’s head, and Rokens buried a harpoon deep 
in its side. 

“ Stern aU ! ” thundered the captain. 

The men obeyed, and the boat was backed off 
the whale just in time to escape the blow of its 
tremendous flukes as it dived into the sea, the 
blue depths of which were instantly dyed red 
with the blood that flowed in torrents from the 
wound. 

Down it went, carrying out the line at a rate 
that caused the chocks through which it passed 
to smoke. In a few minutes the line ceased to 
run out, and the whale returned to the surface. 
It had scarcely showed its nose, when the slack 
of the line was hauled in, and a second harpoon 
was fixed in its body. 

Infuriated with pain, the mighty fish gave vent 
to a roar like a buU, rolled half over, and lashed 
the sea with its flukes, till, all around for many 
yards, it was churned into red slimy foam. Then 
he turned roun^, and dashed off with the speed 


70 


THE RED ERIC. 


of a locomotive engine, tearing the boat through 
the wave^ behind it, the water curling up like a 
white wall round the bows. 

“ She wont stand that long,” muttered Glynn 
Proctor, as he rested on his oar, and looked over 
his shoulder at the straining line. 

“ That she will, boy,” said the captain ; “ and 
more than that, if need be. You’ll not be long 
of havin’ a chance of greasin’ your fingers, FU 
warrant.” 

In a few minutes the speed began to slacken, 
and after a time they were able to haul in on the 
line. When the whale again came to the surface, 
a third harpoon was cleverly struck into it, and a 
spout of blood from its blow-hole showed that it 
was mortally wounded. In throwing the harpoon, 
Tim Rokens slipped his foot, and went down like 
a stone head-foremost into the sea. He came up 
again like a cork, and jus-t as the boat flew past 
fortunately caught hold of Glynn Proctor’s hand. 
It was well that the grasp was a firm one, for the 
strain on their two arms was awful. In another 
minute Tim was in his place, ready with his lance 
to finish off the whale at its next rise. 

Up it came again, foaming, breaching, and 
plunging from wave to wave, flinging torrents 
of blood and spray into the air. At one moment 
he reared his blunt gigantic head high above the 
sea ; the next he buried his vast and quivering 
carcase deep in the gory brine, carrying down 
with him a perfect whirlpool of red foam. Then 


VICTORY . 


7] 


he rose again, and made straight ior the boat 
Had he known his own power, he might have 
soon terminated the battle, and come off the vic- 
tor, but fortunately he did not. Tim Rokens 
received his blunt nose on the point of his lance, 
and drove him back with mingled fury and ter- 
ror. Another advance was made, and a suc- 
cessful lance-thrust delivered. 

“ That’s into his life,” cried the captain. 

“ So it is,” replied Rokens. 

And so it was. A vital part had been struciv. 
For some minutes the huge leviathan lashed and 
rolled and tossed in the trembling waves in his 
agony, while he spouted up gallons of blood at 
every throe ; then he rolled over on his back, and 
lay extended a lifeless mass upon the waters. 

“ Now, lads ; three cheers for our first whale. 
Hip! hip! hip! ” 

The cheer that followed was given with all the 
energy and gusto inspired by a first victory, and 
it was repeated again and again, and over again, 
before the men felt themselves sufficiently re- 
lieved to commence the somewhat severe and 
tedious labor of towing the carcase to the ship. 

It was a hard pull, for the whale had led them 
a long chase, and as the calm continued, those 
left aboard could not approach to meet the boats. 
The exhausted men were cheered, however, on 
getting aboard late that night, to find that the 
other boats had been equally successful, each of 
them having captured a sperm-whale. 


72 


THE BED ERIC 


CHAPTER VI. 

Disagreeable Changes. — Sagacious Conversations, and a Terribk 
Accident. 

A STRIKING and by no means a pleasant change 
took place in the general appearance of the Red 
Eric immediately after the successful chase de- 
tailed in the last chapter. 

Before the arrival of the whales the decks had 
been beautifully clean and white, for Captain 
Dunning was proud of his ship, and fond of 
cleanliness and order. A few hours after said 
arrival the decks were smeared with grease, oil, 
and blood, and every thing from stem to stern 
became from that day filthy and dirty. 

This was a sad change to poor Ailie, who had 
not imagined it possible that so sudden and dis- 
agreeable an alteration could take place. But 
there was no help for it ; the duties of the fishery 
in which they were engaged required that the 
whales should not only be caught, but cut up, 
oiled down to oil, and stowed away in the hold 
ii casks. 

If the scene was changed for the worse a few 
hours after the cutting-up operations were begun, 
it became infinitely more so when the try-works 
were set going, and the melting-fires were light- 


73 


“CUTTING OUT.” 

ed, and huge volumes of smoke begrimed the 
masts, and sails, and rigging. It was vain to 
think of clearing up ; had they attempted that, 
the men would have been overtasked without 
any good being accomplished. There was only 
one course open to those who didn’t hke it, and 
that was — to “ grin and bear it.” 

“ Cutting out” and “trying in” are the terms 
used by whalemen to denote the processes of 
cutting off the flesh or “blubber” from the 
whale’s carcase, and reducing it to oil. 

At an early hour on the following morning the 
first of these operations was commenced. 

Ailie went about the decks, looking on with 
mingled wonder, interest, and disgust. She 
stepped about gii^erly, as if afraid of coming in 
contact with slimy objects, and with her nose and 
mouth screwed up after the fashion of those who 
are obliged to endure bad smells. The expres- 
sion of her face under the circumstances was 
amusing. 

As for the men, they went about their work 
with relish, and total indifference as to conse- 
quences. 

When the largest whale had been hauled along- 
side, ropes were attached to its head and tail, and 
the former was secured near the stern of the ship, 
while the latter was lashed to the bow ; the cut- 
ting-tackle. was then attached. This consisted 
of an arrangement of pulleys depending from the 


74 


THE RED ERIC. 


maintop, with a large blubber-hook at the end 
thereof. The cutting was commenced at the 
neck, and the hook attached ; then the men hove 
on the windlass, and, while the cutting was con- 
tinued in a spiral direction round the whale’s 
body, the tackle raised the mass of flesh until it 
reached the fixed blocks above. This mass, when 
it could be hauled up no higher, was then cut off, 
and stowed away under the name of a “ blanket- 
piece.” It weighed upwards of a ton. The hook 
being lowered and again attached, Ihe process 
was continued until the whole was cut ofl'. After- 
wards, the head was severed from the body and 
hoisted on board, in order that the oil contained 
in the hollow of it might be baled out. 

From the head of the first whale ten barrels of 
oil were obtained. The blubber yielded about 
eighty barrels. 

When the “ cutting out ” was completed, and 
the remnants of bone and flesh were left to the 
sharks which swarmed round the vessel, revelling 
in their unusually rich banquet, the process of 
“ trying in ” commenced. Trying-in is the term 
applied to the melting of the fat and the stowing 
it away in barrels in the form of oil ; and an un- 
commonly dirty process it is. The large “ blan- 
ket-pieces ” were cut into smaller portions, and 
put into the try-pots, which were kept in constant 
operation. At night, the ship had all the appear- 
ance of a vessel on fire, and the scene on deck 
was narticularlv striking and unearthly. 


A WILD SCENE. 


75 


One night several of the men were grouped on 
and around the windlass, chatting, singing, and 
“ spinning yarns.” Ailie Dunning stood near 
, them, lost in wonder and admiration ; for the ears 
and eyes of the child were assailed in a manner 
never before experienced or dreamed of even in 
the most romantic mode of cloud-wandering. 

It was a very dark night, darker than usual, 
and not a breath of wind ruffled the sea, which 
was like a sheet of undulating glass — for, be it 
remembered, there is no such thing at any time 
as absolute stillness in the ocean. At ail times, 
even in the profoundest calm, the long, slow, gen- 
tle swell rises and sinks with unceasing regularity, 
like the bosom of a man in deep slumber. 

Dense clouds of black smoke and occasional 
lurid sheets of flame rose from the try-works, 
which were situated between the foremast and 
the main-hatch. The tops of the masts were lost 
in th^ curling smoke, and the black waves of the 
sea gleamed and flashed in the red light all round 
the ship. One man stood in front of the melting- 
pot, pitching in pieces of blubber with a two- 
pronged pitchfork. Two comrades stood by the 
pots, stirring up their contents, and throwing, 
their figures into wild uncouth attitudes, while 
the fi/e glared in their greasy faces, and converted 
the f> ont of their entire persons into deep vermil- 
ion. 

The oil was hissing in the try-pots ; the rough 


76 


THE RED ERIC. 


weather-beaten faces of the men on the windlass 
were smeared, and their dnty- white ducks satu- 
rated with oil. The decks were blood-stained : 
huge masses of flesh and blubber lay scattered 
about : sparks flew upwards in splendid showers 
as the men raked the up fires ; the decks, bul- 
warks, railing, try -works, and windlass, were cov- 
ered with oil and slime, and glistering in the red 
glare. It was a terrible, murderous-looldng scene, 
and filled Ailie’s mind with mingled feelings of 
wonder, disgust, and awe, as she leaned on a 
comparatively clean spot near the foremast, lis- 
tening to the men and gazing at the rolling smoke 
andSflames. 

“ Ain’t it beautiful ? ” said a short, fat little sea- 
man named Gurney, who sat swinging his legs 
on the end of the windlass, and pointed, as he 
spoke, with the head of his pipe, to a more than 
usually brilliant burst of sparks and flame that 
issued that moment from the works. 

“ Beautiful ! ” exclaimed a long-limbed, sham- 
bling fellow named Jim Scroggles, “ why, that 
ain’t the word at all. Now, I calls it splendif- 
erous.” 

Scroggles looked round at his comrades, as if 
to appeal to their judgment as to the fitness of 
the word, but not receiving any encouragement, 
he thrust down the glowing tobacco in his pipe 
with the end of his little finger, and reiterated the 
word “ splendiferous,” with marked emphasis. 


SCKOGGLES ASSAILED. 


77 


“ Did ye ever see that word in Johnson ? ” in- 
quired Gurney. 

“ Whose Johnson ? said Scroggles, contempt- 
uously. 

“ Wot, don’t ye know who Johnson is ? ” cried 
Gurney, in surprise. 

“ In course I don’t ; how should I ? ” retorted 
Scroggles. “ There’s ever so many Johnsons in 
the world ; which on ’em aU do you mean ? ” 

“ Why, I mean Johnson wot wrote the diksh’- 
nary — the great lexikragofer.” 

“ Oh ! it’s him you mean, is it ? In course I’ve 
knowd him ever since I wos at school.” 

A general laugh interrupted the speaker. 

“ At school ! ” cried Nikel Sling, who ap- 
proached the group at that moment, with a carv- 
ing-knife in his hand — he seldom went any 
where without an instrument of office in his hand 
— “ At school! Wal now, that beats creation. 
If ye wos. I’m sartin’ ye only lamed to forgit all 
ye orter to have remembered. I’d take a bet, 
now, ye wosn’t at school as long as I’ve been set- 
tin’ on this here windlass.” 

“ Yer about right, Sling, it ud be unpossible for 
me to be as long as you anywhere, cause every- 
body knows I’m only five fut two, whereas you’re 
six fut four ! ” 

“ Hear, hear ! ” shouted Dick Barnes — a man 
with a huge black beard, who the reader may 
perhaps remember was the first to “ raise the oil” 


78 


THE EED ERIC. 


“ It’ll be long before you make another joke like 
that, Gurney. 'Come, now, give us a song, Gur- 
ney, do ; there’s the cap’n’s darter standin’ by the 
foremast, a’waitin’ to hear ye. Give us ‘ Long, 
long ago.’ ” 

“ Ah ! that’s it, give us a song,” cried the men 

‘‘ Come, there’s a good fellow.” 

“ Well, it’s so long ago since I sung that song, 
shipmates,” replied Gurney, “that I’ve bin and 
forgot it; but Tim Rokens knows it; where’s 
Rokens ? ” 

“ He’s in the watch below.” 

In sea parlance, the men whose turn it is to 
take rest after their long watch on deck, are 
somewhat facetiously said to belong to the 
“ watch below.” 

“ Ah ! that’s a pity ; so we can’t have that ere 
partikler song. But I’ll give ye another, if ye 
don’t object.” 

“ No, no. All right ; go ahead, Gurney ! Is 
there a c/mrus to it ? ” 

“ Ay, in course there is. Wot’s a song without 
a chorus ? Wot’s plum-duff without the plums ? 
Wot’s a ship without a ’elm ? It’s my opinion, 
shipmates, that a song without a cAorus is no bet- 
ter than it should be. It’s wus snor nothin’. It 
puts them wot listens in the blues, an’ the man 
wot sings into the stews — an’ sarve him right. 
I wouldn’t, no I wouldn’t give the fag-end o’ 
nothin’ mixed in a bucket o’ salt water for a song 
without a cAorus — that’s flat ; so here goes.” 


GUKNEY^S SONG. 


79 


Having delivered himself of these opinions in 
an extremely vigorous manner, and announced 
the fact that he was about to begin, Gurney 
cleared his throat and drew a number of violent 
puffs from his pipe in quick succession, in order 
to kindle that instrument into a glow w^hich 
would last through the first verse and the com- 
mencement of the chorus. This he knew was 
sufficient, for the men, when once fairly started 
on the chorus, would infallibly go on to the end 
with or without his assistance, and would there- 
fore afford him time for a few restorative whiffs. 

‘‘ It hain’t got no name, lads.” 

“ Never mind, Gurney — all right — fire away.” 

“ Oh, I once know’d a man as hadn’t got a nose, 

An’ this is how he come to hadn’t — 

One cold winter night he went and got it froze — 

By the pain ho wos wellnigh madden’d. 

[Chorus.) Wellnigh madden’d, 

• By the pain he wos wellnigh madden’d. 

Next day it swoll up as big as my head. 

An’ it turn’d like a piece of putty ; 

It kirered up his moirth, oh, yes, so it did. 

So he could not smoke his cutty. 

[Chorus.) Smoke his cutty. 

So he could not smoke his cutty. 

“ Next day it grew black, and the next day blue, 

An’ tougli as a junk of leather ; 

Oh ! he yelled, so he did, fit to pierce ye through) — 

An’ then it fell off altogether ! 

( Chorus.) Fell off altogether. 

An’ then it fell off altogether ! 


80 


THE BED ERIC. 


“ But the morial is wot youVe now got to hear, 

An’ it’s good — as sure as a gun ; 

An’ you’ll never forget it, my messmates dear. 

For this song it hain’t got none ! 

( Chorus.) Hain’t got none. 

For this song it hain’t got none ! ” 

The applause that foUowed this song was 
most enthusiastic, and evidently gratifying to 
Gurney, who assumed a modest deprecatory air 
as he proceeded to relight his pipe, which had 
been allowed to go out at the third verse, the 
performer having become so engrossed in his sub- 
ject as to have forgotten the interlude of puffs at 
that point. 

“Well sung, Gurney. Who made it? ’’in- 
quired Phil Briant, an Irishman, who, besides 
being a jack-of-all-trades and an able-bodied sea- 
man, was at that time acting-assistant to the 
cook and steward, the latter — a half Spaniard 
and half negro, of Californian extraction — be- 
ing unwell. 

“ I’m bound not to tell,” repKed Gurney, with 
a conscious air. 

“ Ah, then, yer right, my boy, for it’s below 
the average entirely.” 

“ Come, Phil, none o’ your chaff,” cried Dick 
Barnes ; “ that song desarves somethin’ arter it. 
Suppose, now, Phil, that you wos to go below 
and fetch the bread-kid.” 

“ Couldn’t do it,” replied Phil, looking solemn 
“ on no account wotiver,” 


THE CEOSS STEWAED. 


81 


^ Oh, nonsense, why not ? ” 

“’Cause it’s unpossible. Why, if I did, sure 
that surly compound o’ all sorts o’ human blood 
would pitch into me with the carvin’-knife.” 

“ Who ? Tarquin ? ” cried Dick Barnes, nam- 
ing the steward. 

“ Ay, sure enough that same — Tarquin’s his 
name, an’ it’s kuriously befittin’ the haythen, for 
of all the cross-grained mixtures o’ buffalo, bear, 
bandicoot, and crackadile I ever seed, he’s out 
o’ sight ” 

“ Did 1 hear any one mention my name,” in- 
quired the steward himself, who came aft at that 
moment. He was a wild Spanish-like fellow, 
with a handsome-enough figure, and a swart 
countenance that might have been good-looking 
but for the thickish lips and nose and the bad 
temper that marked it. Since getting into the 
tropics, the sailors had modified their costumes 
considerably, and as each man had in some par- 
ticular allowed himself a slight play of fancy, 
their appearance, when grouped together, was 
varied and picturesque. Most of them wore no 
shoes, and the caps of some were, to say the 
least, peculiar. Tarquin wore a broad-brimmed 
straw hat, with a conical crown, and a red silk 
sash tied round his waist. 

“ Yes, Tarquin,” replied Barnes, we vws en- 
gaged in makin’ free-an’-easy remarks on you ; 
and Phil Briant there gave us to understand that 


82 


THE RED ERIC. 


you wouldn’t let us have the bread-kid up. Now, 
it’s my opinion you ain’t goin’ to be so hard on 
us as that ; you will let us have it up to comfort 
3ur hearts on this fine night ; won’t you ? ” 

The steward, whose green visage showed that 
/e was too ' ill to enter into a dispute at that 
jme, turned on his heel and walked aft, remark- 
ng that they might eat the bottom out o’ the 
ifihip, for all he cared. 

“ There now, you misbemannered Patlander, 
go and get it, or we’ll throw ye overboard,” cried 
Scroggles, twisting his long limbs awkwardly as 
he shifted his position on the windlass. 

“ Now then, shipmates, don’t go for to ax it,” 
said Briant, remaining immovable. “ Don’t I 
know wot’s best for ye ? Let me spaake to ye 
now. Did any of ye iver study midsin ? ” 

“ No I ” cried several, with a laugh. 

“ Sure I thought not,” continued Phil, with a 
patronizing air, or ye’d niver ask for the bread- 
kid out o’ saisin. Now I was in the medical 
way meself wance — ay, ye may laugh, but its 
thrue — I wos ’prentice to a pothecary, an Pve 
mixed up more mid sins than would pisen the 
whole popilation of owld Ireland — barrin the 
praists, av coorse. And didn’t I hear the con- 
varse o’ all the doctors in the place ? And wasn’t 
the word always — ‘Be rigglar with yer mails — 
don’t ait, avic, more nor three times a day, and 
not too mueh, now. Be sparin’.” 


BISCUIT FRITTERS. 


83 


“ Hah ! ye long-winded grampus,” interrupted 
Dick Barries, impatiently. “ An’ warn’t the doc- 
tors right? Three times a day for sick folk, and 
six times — or more — for them wot’s well.” 

“ Hear ! hear ! ” cried the others, while two 
of them seized Briant by the neck, and thrust 
him forcibly toward the after-hatch. “Bring up 
the kid, now ; an’ if ye come without it, look out 
for squalls.” 

“ Och ! worse luck,” sighed the misused assist- 
ant, as he disappeared. 

In a few minutes Phil returned with the kid, 
which was a species of tray filled with broken 
sea-biscuit, which, when afloat, goes by the name 
of “bread.” 

This was eagerly seized, for the appetites of 
sailors are always sharp, except immediately 
after meals. A quantity of the broken biscuit 
was put into a strainer, and fried in whale oil, 
and the men sat round the kid to enjoy their 
luxurious feast, and relate their adventures — ail 
of which were more or less marvellous, and 
many of them undoubtedly true. 

The more one travels in this world of ours, 
and the more one reads of the adventures of 
travellers upon whose narratives we can place 
implicit confidence, the more we find that men 
do not now require, as they did of old, to draw 
upon their imaginations for marvellous tales 
of wild romantic adventure. In days gone by, 


84 


THE RED ERIC. 


travellers were few ; foreign lands were almost 
unknown. Not many books were written ; and 
of the few that were, very few were believed. In 
the present day men of undoubted ti’uthfulness 
have roamed far and wide over the whole world ; 
their books are numbered by hundreds, and much 
that was related by ancient travellers, but not 
believed, has now been fully corroborated. More 
than that, it is now loiown that men have every- 
where received, as true, statements which mod- 
ern discovery has proved to be false, and on the 
other hand they have often refused to believe 
what is now ascertained to be literally true. 

We would suggest, in passing, that a lesson 
might be learned from this fact — namely, that 
we ought to receive a statement in regard to a 
foreign land, not according to the probability or 
the improbability of the statement itself, but 
according to the credibility of him who makes 
it. Ailie Dunning had a trustful disposition ; she 
acted on neither of the above principles. She 
believed all she heard, poor thing, and there- 
fore had a head pretty well stored with mingled 
fact and nonsense. 

While the men were engaged with their meal. 
Dr. Hopley came on deck and found her lean- 
ing over the stern, looking down at the waves 
which shone with sparkling phosphorescent light. 
An almost imperceptible breeze had sprung up, 
and the way made by the vessel as she passed 


PHOSPHORESCENCE. 


65 


through the water was indicated by a stream of 
what appeared lambent blue flame. 

Looking at the fish, Ailie, as usual ? ” said 
the doctor, as he came up. “ What are they 
saying to you lo-night ? ” 

“ I’m not looking at the fish,” answered Ailie: 
“ I’m looking at the fire — no, not the fire ; papa 
said it wasn’t fire ; but it’s so like it, I can scarce- 
ly call it any thing else. What is it, doctor ? ” 

“ It is called phosphorescence,” replied the 
doctor, leaning over the bulwarks, and looking 
down at the fiery serpent that seemed as if it 
clung to the ship’s rudder. But I dare say you 
don’t know what that means. You know what 
fire-flies and glow-worms are ? ” 

“ Oh I yes ; I’ve often caught them.” 

“ Well, there are immense numbers of very 
small and very thin jelly-like creatures in the sea, 
so thin and so transparent that they can scarcely 
be observed in the water. These Medusae, as 
they are called, possess the power of emitting 
light similar to that of the -fire-fly. In short, 
Ailie, they are the fire-flies and glow-wc^-ms of 
the ocean.” 

The child listened with wonder, and for some 
minutes remained silent. Before she could again 
speak, there occurred one of those incidents 
which are generally spoken of as “ most unex- 
pected ” and sudden, but which, nevertheless, are 
8 


86 


THE RED ERIC. 


the result of natural causes, and might have 
been prevented by means of a little care. 

The wind, as we have said, was light, so light 
that it did not distend the sails; the boom of 
the spanker-sail hung over the stern, and the 
spanker-braces lay slack along the seat on which 
Ailie and the doctor knelt. A little gust of wind 
came : it was not strong — a mere puff ; but the 
man at the wheel was not attending to his duty : 
the puff, light as it was, caused the spanker to 
jibe — that is, to fly over from one side of the 
ship to the other — the heavy boom passed close 
over the steersman’s head as he cried, “ Look 
out ! ” The braces taughtened, and in so doing 
they hurled Dr. Hopley violently to the deck, 
and tossed Ailie Dunning over the bulwarks into 
the sea. 

It happened at that moment that Glynn Proc- 
tor chanced to step on deck. 

“ Hallo ! what’s wrong ? ” cried the youth, 
springing forward, catching the doctor by the 
coat, as he was about to spring overboard, and 
pulling him violently back, under the impression 
that he was deranged. 

The doctor pointed to the sea, and, with a 
look of horror, gasped the word “ Ailie.” 

In an instant Glynn released his hold, plunged 
over the stern of the ship, and disappeared in the 
waves. 


AILIB OVERBOARD. 


87 


CHAPTER VII. 


The Rescue. — Preparations for a Storm. 


It is impossible to convey by means of words 
an adequate idea of the terrible excitement and 
uproar that ensued on board the Red Eric 
after the events narrated in the last chapter. 
From ihose on deck who witnessed the accident 
there arose a cry so sharp, that it brought the 
whole crew from below in an instant. But there 
was no confusion. The men were well trained. 
Each individual knew his post, and whalemen 
are accustomed to a sudden and hasty summons. 
The peculiarity of the present one, it is true, told 
every man in an instant that something was 
wrong, but each mechanically sprang to his post, 
while one or two shouted to ascertain what had 
happened, or to explain. 

But the moment Captain Dunning’s voice was 
heard there was perfect silence. 

“ Clear away the starboard quarter-boat,” he 
cried, in a deep firm tone. 

“ Ay, ay, sir.” 

“ Stand by the falls — lower away ! ” 

There was no occasion to urge the sailors 
they sprang to the work with the fervid ’olerity 
of men who knew that life or death depended on 


88 


THE RED ERIC* 


their speed. In less time than it takes to relate, 
the boat was leaping over the long ocean swell, 
as it had never yet done in chase of the whale, 
and, in a few seconds,* passed out of the little 
circle of light caused by the fires and into the 
gloom that surrounded the ship. 

The wind had been gradually increasing dur- 
ing all these proceedings, and although no time 
had been lost, and the vessel had been immedi- 
ately brought up into the wind, Ailie and Glynn 
were left struggling in the dark sea a long way 
behind ere the quarter-boat could be lowered ; 
and now that it was fairly afloat, there was still 
the danger of its failing to hit the right direction 
of the objects of which it was in search. 

After leaping over the stern, Glynn Proctor, 
the moment he rose to the surface, gave a quick 
glance at the ship, to make sure of her exact 
position, and then struck out in a straight line 
astern; for he knew that wherever Ailie fell, 
there she would remain struggling until she sank. 
Glynn was a fast and powerful swimmer. He 
struck out with desperate energy, and in a few 
minutes the ship was out of sight behind him. 
Then he paused suddenly, and letting his feet 
sink, until he attained an upright position, trod 
the water and raised himself breast-high above 
the surface, at the same time listening intently, 
for he began to fear that he might have overshot 
his mark. No sound met his strained ear save 


GLYNN’S DESPAIR. 


89 


the sighing of the breeze and the ripple of the 
water as it lapped against his chest. It was too 
dark to see more than a few yards in any direction. 

Glynn knew that each moment lost rendered his 
chance of saving the child tendbly slight. He 
shouted “ Aiiie I ” in a loud agonizing cry, and 
swam forward again with redoubled energy, con- 
tinuing the cry from time to time, and raising 
himself occasionally to look round him. The 
excitement of his mind and the intensity with 
which it w?iS bent on the one great object, ren- 
dered him at first almost unobservant of the 
flight of time. But suddenly the thought burst 
upon him that fully ten minutes or a quarter of 
an hour had elapsed since Aiiie fell overboard, 
and that no one who could not swim could exist 
for half that time in deep water. He shrieked 
with agony at the thought, and, fancying that he 
must have passed the child, he turned round and 
swam desperately toward the point where he 
supposed the ship lay. Then he thought, 
“ What if I have turned just as I was coming up 
with her ? ” So he turned about again, but as 
the hopelessness of his eflbrts once more occurred 
to him, he lost aU presence of mind, and began 
to shout furiously, and to strike out wildly in all 
directions. 

In the midst of his mad struggles his hand 
struck an object floating near him. Instantly he 
felt his arm convulsively grasped, and the next 
8 * 


90 


THE RED ERIC. 


moment he was seized round the neck in a gripe 
so violent that it almost choked him. He sank 
at once, and the instinct of self-preservation re- 
stored his presence of mind. With a powerful 
effort he tore Ailie from her grasp, and quickly 
raised himself to the surface, where he swam 
gently with his left hand, and held the strug- 
gling child at arm’s-length with his right. 

The joy caused by the knowledge that she 
had still life to struggle infused new energy into 
Glynn’s wellnigh exhausted frame, and he as- 
sumed as calm and cheerful a tone as was 
possible under the circumstances, when he ex- 
claimed — “Ailie, Ailie, don’-t struggle, dear; I’ll 
save, you if you keep quieV^ 

Ailie was quiet in a moment. She felt in the 
terror of her young heart an almost irresistible 
desire to clutch at Glynn’s neck ; but the well- 
known voice reassured her, and her natural 
tendency to place blind implicit confidence in 
others, served her in this hour of need, for she 
obeyed his injunctions at once. 

“ Now, dear,” said Glynn, with nervous rapid- 
ity, don’t grasp me, else we shall sink. Trust 
me, ril never let you go.” Will you trust me ? ” 

AiUe gazed wildly at her deliverer through her 
wet and tangled tresses, and with great difficulty 
gasped the word “ Yes,” while she clenched the 
garments on her laboring bosom with her little 
hands, as if to show her determination to do as 
she was bid. 


THE KESCUE. 


91 


Glynn at once drew her toward him and 
rested her head on his shoulder. The child gave 
vent to a deep, broken sigh of relief, and threw her 
right arm round his neck, but the single word 
*‘Ailie,” uttered in a remonstrative tone, caused 
her to draw it quickly back and again grasp her 
breast. 

All this time Glynn had been supporting him- 
self by that process well known to swimmers as 
“ treading water,” and had been so intent upon 
his purpose of securing the child, that he failed 
to observe the light of a lantern gleaming in the 
far distance on the sea, as the boat went plough- 
ing hither and thither, the men abz/ost breaking 
the oars in their desperate haste, and the captain 
standing in the stern sheets pal: as death, hold- 
ing the light high over his head, and gazing with 
a look of unutterable agony into the s^arrounding 
gloom. 

Glynn now saw the distant h ^ht, and exerting 
his voice to the utmost, gave vent to a prolonged 
cry. Ailie looked up in her companion’s face 
while he listened intently. The moving light 
became stationary for a moment, and a faint re- 
ply floated back to them over the waves. Again 
Glynn raised his voice to ib utmost, and the 
cheer that came back told him that he had been 
heard. 

But the very feeling of relief at the prospect 
of immediate deliverance had weUnigh proved 


92 


THE RED ERIC. 


fatal to them both ; for Glynn experienced a 
sudden relaxation of his whole system, and he 
felt as if he could not support himself and his 
burden a minute longer. 

“Ailie,” he said, faintly but quickly, ‘‘ we shall 
be saved if you obey at once ; if not, we shall be 
drowned. Lay your two hands on my breast, 
and let yourself sink down to the very lips’^ 

Glynn turned on his back as he spoke, spread 
out his arms and legs to their full extent, let his 
head fall back, until it sank, leaving only his lips, 
nose, and chin above water, and lay as motion- 
less as if he had been dead. And now came 
poor Ailie’s severest trial. When she allowed 
herself to sink, and felt the water rising about 
her ears, and lipping round her mouth, terror 
again seized upon her, but she felt Glynn’s breast 
heaving under her hands, so she raised her eyes 
to heaven and prayed silently to Him who is the 
only true deliverer from danger. Her self-pos- 
session was restored, and soon she observed the 
boat bearing down on the spot, and heard the 
men as they shouted to attract attention. 

Aihe tried to reply, but her tiny voice was 
gone, and her soul was filled with horror as she 
saw the boat about to pass on. In her agony she 
began to struggle. This roused Glynn, who had 
rested sufficiently to have recovered a slight de- 
gree of strength. He immediately raised his 
head, and uttered a wi. i cry as he grasped Ailie 
again with his arm. 


THE EESCUB. 


93 


' The rowers paused ; the light of the lantern 
gleamed over the sea, and fell upon the spray 
tossed up by Glynn. Next moment the boat 
swept up to them — and they were saved. 

The scene that followed baffles all descrip- 
tion. Captain Dunning fell on his knees beside 
Ailie, who was too much exhausted to speak, 
and thanked God, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
again and again for her deliverance. A few of 
the men shouted ; others laughed hysterically , 
and some wept freely as they crowded round 
their shipmate, who, although able to sit up, 
could not speak except in disjointed sentences. 
Glynn, however, ^recovered quickly, and even 
tried to warm himself by pulling an oar before 
they regained the ship, but Ailie remained in a 
state of partial stupor, and was finally carried 
on board and down into the cabin, and put be- 
tween warm blankets by her father and Dr. 
Hopley. 

Meanwhile, Glynn was hurried forward, and 
dragged down into the forecastle by the whole 
crew, who seemed unable to contain themselves 
for joy, and expressed their feelings in ways that 
would have been deemed rather absurd on ordi- 
nary occasions. 

“ Change yer clo’s, avic, at wance,” cried Phil 
Briant, who was the most officious and violent in 
his offers of assistance to Glynn. “ Och ! but 
it/s wet ye are, darlin’. Give me a howld.” 


94 


THE RED ERIC. 


This last request had reference to the right leg 
of Glynn’s trousers, ^which happened to be blue 
cloth of a rather thin quality, and which there- 
fore clung to his limbs with such tenacity that it 
was a matter of the utmost difficulty to get them 
off. 

“ That’s your sort, Phil — a long pull, and a 
strong pull, and a pull all together,” cried Dick 
JBarnes, hurrying forward, with a bundle of gar- 
ments in his arms. “ Here’s dry clo’s for him.” 

“ Have a care, Phil,” shouted Gurney, who 
stood behind Glynn and held him by the shoul- 
ders ; “ it’ll give way.” 

“ Niver a taste,” replied the reckless Irishman. 
But the result proved that Gurney was right, for 
the words had scarce escaped his lips when the 
garment parted at the knee, and Phil Briant went 
crashing back among a heap of tin pannikins, 
pewter plates, blocks, and cordage. A burst of 
laughter followed, of course, but the men’s spirits 
were too much roused to be satisfied with this, so 
they converted the laugh into a howl and pro- 
longed it into a cheer, as if their comrade had 
successfully performed a difficult and praise 
worthy deed. 

“ Hold on lads,” cried Glynn ; “ I’m used up, 1 
can’t stand it.” 

“ Here you are,” shouted Nikel Sling, pushing 
the men violently aside, and holding a steaming 
tumbler of hot brandy-and- water under Glynn’s 


TIM R3KENS WEEPS. 


95 


nose. “ Down with it ; that’s the stuff to get up 
the steam fit to bust yer biler, I calc’late.” 

The men looked on for a moment in silence, 
while Glynn drank, as if they expected some 
remarkable chemical change to take place in his 
constitution. 

“ Och, ain’t it swate ? ” inquired Phil Briant, 
who having gathered himself up, now stood rub- 
bing his shoulder with the fragment of the riven 
garment. “ Av I wasn’t a taytotaller, it’s meself 
would like some of that same.” 

In a few minutes our hero was divested of his 
wet garments, rubbed perfectly dry by his kind 
messmates, and clad in dry costume, after which 
he felt almost as well as if nothing unusual had 
happened to him. The men, meanwhile, cut 
their jokes at him or at each other as they stood 
round and watched, assisted, or retarded the pro- 
cess. As for Tim Rokens, who had been in the 
boat and witnessed the rescue, he stood gazing 
steadfastly at Glynn without uttering a word, 
keeping his thumbs the while hooked in the arm- 
holes of his vest, and his legs very much apart. 
By degrees — as he thought on what had passed, 
and the narrow escape poor little Ailie had had, 
and the captain’s tears, things he never saw the 
caotain shed before and had not believed the 
captain to have possessed — as he pondered these 
things, we say, his knotty visage began to work 
and his cast-iron chin began to quiver, and his 


96 


THE RED ERIC. 


shaggy brows contracted, and his nose, besides 
becoming purple, began to twist as if it were an 
independent member of his face, and he came, in 
short, to that climax which is familiarly expressed 
by the words “ bursting into tears.” 

But if anybody thinks the act, on the part of 
Tim Rokens, bore the smallest resemblance to 
the generally received idea of that sorrowful af- 
fection, “ anybody,” we take leave to tell him, is 
very much mistaken. The bold harpooner did it 
thus — he suddenly unhooked his right hand from 
the arm-hole of his vest, and gave his right thigh 
a slap which produced a crack that would have 
made a small pistol envious ; then he uttered a 
succession of ferocious roars, that might have 
quite well indicated pain, or grief, or madness, or 
a drunken cheer, and, unhooking the left hai^d, 
he doubled himself up, and thrust both knuckles 
into his eyes. The knuckles were wet when he 
pulled them out of his eyes, but he dried them on 
his pantaloons, bolted up the hatchway, and, 
rushing up to the man at the wheel, demanded, 
in a voice of thunder — “ How’s ’er head ? ” 

“ Sou, sou-east and by east,” replied the man, 
in some surprise.” 

“Sou, sou-east and by east!” repeated Mr. 
Rokens, in a savage growl of authority, as if he 
were nothing less than the admiral of the Chan- 
lel fleet ; “ that’s two points and a half off yer 
course, sir. Luff, luff, you — jon ” 


GLYNN RECEIVES THE THANKS OF AILIE. 97 


At this point, Tim Rokens turned on his heel, 
and began to walk up and down the deck as 
calmly as if nothing whatever had occurred to 
disturb his equanimity. 

“ The captain wants Glynn Proctor,” said the 
mate, looking down the fore-hatch. 

“ Ay, ay, sir,” answered Glynn, ascending, and 
going aft. 

“ Ailie wants to see you, Glynn, my boy,” said 
Captain Dunning, as the former entered the cab- 
in ; “ and I want to speak to you myself — to 
thank you, Glynn. Ah, lad! you can’t know 

what a father’s heart feels when go to her, 

boy.” He grasped the youth’s hand, and gave it 
a squeeze that revealed infinitely more of his 
feelings than could have been done by words. 

Glynn returned the squeeze, and, opening the 
door of Ailie’s private cabin, entered and sat 
down beside her crib. 

“ Oh, Glynn, I want to speak to you ; I want 
to thank you. I love you so much for jumping 
into the sea after me,” began the child, eagerly, 
and raising herself on one elbow while she held 
out her hand. 

“ Ailie,” interrupted Glynn, taking her hand, 
and holding up his finger to impose silence, “ you 
obeyed me in the water, and now I insist on your 
obedience out of the water. If you don’t. I’ll 
leave you. You’re stiU too weak to toss about 
and speak loud in this way. Lie down, my pet,” 
9 


THE BED ERIC. 


9 ^^ 


Glynn Kissed her forehead, and forced hei 
gently back on the pillow. 

‘‘ Well, I’U be good, but don’t leave me yet, 
Glynn. I’m much better. Indeed, I feel quite 

strong. Oh I it was good of you ” 

‘‘ There you go again.” 

“ I love you,” said Ailie. 

“ I’ve no objection to that,” replied Glynn, 
“ but don’t excite yourself. But tell me, AiHe, how 
was it that you managed to keep afloat so long. 
The more I think of it the more I am filled with 
amazement, and, in fact, I’m half inclined to think 
that God worked a miracle in order to save you.” 

“ I don’t know,” said Ailie, looking very grave 
and earnest, as she always did when our Maker’s 
name happened to be mentioned. “ Does God 
work miracles still ? ” 

“ Men say not,” replied Glynn. 

“ I’m sure I don’t quite understand what a mir- 
acle is,” continued Ailie, although Aunt Martha 
and Aunt Jane have often tried to explain it To 
me. Is floating on your back a miracle ? ” 

“ No,” said Glynn, laughing ; “ it isn’t,” 

“ Well, that’s the way I was saved. You 
know, ever since I can remember, I have bathed 
with Aunt Martha and Aunt Jane, and they 
taught me how to float — and it’s so nice, you 
can’t think how nice it is — and I can do it so 
easily now, that I never get frightened. But, oh ! 
when I was tossed over the side of the ship into 


SQUALL COMING. 


99 


the sea, I was frightened just I don’t think I 
ever got such a fright And I splashed about 
for some time, and swallowed some water, but I 
got up on my back somehow. I can’t tell how it 
was, for I was too frightened to try to do any^ 
thing. But when I found myself floating as I 
used to do long ago, I felt my fear go away a lit- 
tle, and I shut my eyes and prayed, and then it 
went away altogether ; and I felt quite sure you 
would come to save me, and you did come, 
Glynn, and I know it was God who sent you. 
But I became a good deal frightened again when 
I thought of the sharks, and ” 

“ Now, Ailie, stop ! ” said Glynn. “ You’re for- 
getting your promise, and exciting yourself again.” 

“ So she is, and I must order you out. Master 
Glynn,” said the doctor, opening the door and 
entering at that moment. 

Glynn rose, patted the child’s head, and nodded 
cheerfully as he left the little cabin. 

The captain caught him as he passed, and began 
to reiterate his thanks, when their conversation 
was interrupted by the voice of Mr. Mfllons, who 
put his head in at the skylight, and said — 

“ Squall coming, sir, I think.” 

“ So, so,” cried the captain, running upon deck. 

I’ve been looking for it. Call aU hands, Mr. 
MiUons, and take in sail — every rag except the 
storm-trysails.” 

Glynn hurried forward, and in a few minutes 
every man was at his post. The sails were furled . 


TOO 


THE KED EKIC. 


and every preparation made for a severe squall 
for Captain Dunning knew that that part of the 
coast of Africa, off which the Red Eric was then 
sailing, was subject to sudden squalls, which, 
though usually of short diuation, were sometimes 
terrific in their violence. 

“ Is every thing snug, Mr. Millons ? ” 

“ All snug, sir.” 

“ Then let the men stand by till it’s over.” 

The night had grown intensely dark, but away 
on the starboard quarter the heavens appeared of 
an ebony blackness that was quite appalling 
This appearance, that rose on the shy like a 
shroud of crape, quickly spread upwards until it 
reached the zenith. Then a few gleams of light 
seemed to illuminate it very faintly, and a distant 
hissing noise was heard. 

A dead cahn surrounded the ship, which lay 
like a log on the water, and the crew, knowing 
that xiothing more could be done in the way of 
preparation, awaited the bursting of the storm 
with uneasy feelings. In a few minutes its dis- 
tant roar was heard, like muttered thunder. On 
it came, with a steady continuous roar, as if chaos 
were about to be restored, and the crashing wreck 
of elements were being hurled in mad fury against 
the yet unshattered portions of creation. Anothei 
second, and the ship was on her beam-ends, and 
the sea and sky were white as milk as the wind 
tore up the waves and beat them flat, and whirled 
away broad sheets of driving foam. 


Glynn’s message to ailie. 


101 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The Storm, and its Results. 

Although the Red Eric was thrown on hex 
beam-ends, or nearly so, by the excessive vio- 
lence of the squall, the preparations to meet it 
had been so well made, that she righted again 
almost immediately, and now flew before the 
wind under bare poles with a velocity that was 
absolutely terrific. 

Ailie had been nearly thrown out of her berth 
when the ship lay over, and now when she lis- 
tened to the water hissing and gurgling past the 
little port that lighted her cabin, and felt the stag- 
gering of the vessel, as burst after burst of the 
hurricane almost tore the masts out of her, she 
lay trembling with anxiety and debating with 
herself whether or not she ought to rise and go 
on deck. 

Captain Dunning well knew that his child 
would be naturally filled with fear, for this was 
the first severe squall she had ever experienced 
so, as he could not quit the deck himself, he 
called Glynn Proctor to him and sent him down 
with a message. 

“ Well, Ailie,” said Glynn, cheerfully, as he 
opened the door and peeped in ; ” how d’ye get 

9 * 


102 


THE KED ERIC. 


on, dear ? The captain has sent me to say that 
the worst o’ this blast is over, and you’ve nothing 
to fear.” 

“ I’m glad to hear that Glynn,” replied the child, 
holding out her hand, while a smile lighted up her 
face and smoothed out the lines of anxiety from 
her brow. “ Come and sit by me, Glynn, and 
tell me what like it is. I wish so much that I 
had been on deck. Was it grand, Glynn ? ” 

“ It was uncommonly grand ; it was even ter- 
rible — but T cannot sit with you more than a 
minute, else my shipmate will say that I am 
skulking.” 

“ Skulking, Glynn ! What’s that ? ” 

“Why, it’s — its shirking work, you know,” 
said Glynn, somewhat puzzled. 

Ailie laughed. “ But you forget that I don’t 
know what ‘ shirking ’ means. You must explain 
that too.” 

“ How terribly green you are, Ailie.” 

“ No I am I ? ” exclaimed the child in some 
surprise. What can have done it? I’m not 
sick.” 

Glynn laughed outright at this, and then pro- 
ceeded to explain the meaning of the slang 
phraseology he had used. “ Green, you must 
know, means ignorant,” he began. 

“ How funny ! I wonder why.” 

“ Well, I don’t know exactly. Perhaps it’s be- 
cause when a fellow’s asked to answer questions 


DEFINITION OF THE WOHD “ SKULKING.” 103 


he don’t understand, he’s apt to turn either blue 
with rage or yellow with fear — or both ; and 
that, you know, would make him green. I’ve 
heard it said that it implies a comparison of 
men to plants — very young ones, you know, 
that are just up, just born, as it were, and have 
not had much experience of life, are green, of 
course — but I like my own definition best.” 

It may perhaps be scarcely necessary to re- 
mark that our hero was by no means singular in 
this little preference of his own definition to that 
of any one else ! 

“WeU, and what does skulking mean, and 
shirking work ? ” persisted Ailie. 

“ It means hiding so as to escape duty, my 
little catechist ; but ” 

“ HaUo ! Glynn, Glynn Proctor,” roared the 
first mate from the deck — where’s that 'fellow ? 
Skulking, I’U be bound. Lay aloft there and 
shake out the fore top sail. Look alive.” 

“ Ay, ay, sir,” was the ready response as the 
men sprang to obey. 

“ There, you have it now, Ailie, explained and 
illustrated,” cried Glynn, starting up. “ Here I 
am, at this minute in a snug dry berth chatting 
to you, and in half a minute more I’ll be out on 
tha end of the foreyard holding on for bare life 
with the wind fit to tear off my jacket and blow 
my ducks into ribbons, and. the rain and spray 
dashing all over me fit to blot me out altogether 


104 


THE HEH EKIC* 


There’s a pretty little idea to turn over in yonl 
mind, Ailie, while I’m away.” 

Glynn closed the door at the last word, and, 
as he had prophesied, was, within half a minute, 
in the unenviable position above referred to. 

The force of the squall was already broken, and 
the men were busy setting close-reefed topsails ; 
but the rain that followed the squall, bid fair to 
“ blot them out,” as Glynn said, altogether. It 
came down, not in drops, but in masses, which 
were caught up by the fierce gale and mingled with 
the spray, and hurled about and on with such vi- 
olent confusion, that it seemed as though the 
whole creation were converted into wind and wa- 
ter, and had engaged in a war of extermination, 
the central turmoil of which was the Red Eric. 

But the good ship held on nobly. Although 
not a fast sailer, she was an excellent sea boat, 
and danced on the billows like a sea-mew. The 
squall, however, was not over. Before the top- 
sails had been set many minutes, it burst on them 
again with redoubled fury, and the maintopsail 
was instantly blown into ribbons. Glynn and his 
comrades were once more ordered aloft to furl the 
remaining sails, but before this could be done the 
foretopmast was carried away, and in falling it 
tore away the jib-boom also. At the same mo- 
ment, a tremendous sea came rolling on astern 
in the uncertain light, it lookpd like a dark mov* 
Ing mountain that was about to fall on them. 


A NARROW ESCAPE. 


105 


“ Luff, luff a little — steady ! ” roared the cap- 
tain, who saw the summit of the wave toppling 
over the stern, and who fully appreciated the dan 
ger of being “ pooped,” which means having a 
wave launched upon the quarter-deck. 

“ Steady it is,” replied the steersman. 

“ Look-out ! ” shouted the captain and several 
of the men, simultaneously. 

Every one seized hold of whatever firm object 
chanced to be within reach; next moment the 
black billow fell like an avalanche on the poop, 
and rushing along the decks, swept the' waist-boat 
and all the loose spars into the sea. The ship 
staggered under the shock, and it seemed to every 
one on deck that she must inevitably founder ; but 
in a few seconds she recovered, the water gushed 
from the scuppers and sides in cataracts, and once 
more they drove swiftly before the gale. 

In about twenty minutes the wind moderated, 
and while some of the men went aloft to clear 
away the wreck of the topsails and make aU snug, 
others went below to put on dry garments. 

“ That was a narrow escape, Mr. Milloiis,” re- 
marked the captain, as he stood by the starboard- 
rails. 

“ It was, sir,” replied the mate. “ It^s a good 
iob, too, sir, that none o’ the ’ands were washed 
overboard.” 

“ It is, indeed, Mr. Millons ; we’ve reason to 
be thankful for that ; but Fm sorry to see thai 
we’ve lost our waist-boat.” 


106 


THE TIED ERIC. 


c 

« We’ve lost our spare sticks, sir,” said the mate 
with a lugubrious face, while he wrung the brine 
out of his hair ; “ and I fear we’ve nothink left 
fit to make a noo foretoprnast, or a jib-boom.” 

“ True, Mr. Millons ; we shall have to run to 
the nearest port on the African coast to refit; 
luckily, we are not very far from it. Meanwhile, 
tell Mr. Markham to try the well ; it is possible 
that we may have sprung a leak in all this strain- 
ing, and see that the wreck of the foretopmast is 
cleared away. I shall go below and consult the 
chart ; if any change in the weather takes place, 
call me at once.” 

“ Yes, sir,” answered the mate, as he placed his 
hand to windward of his mouth, in order to give 
full force to the terrific tones in which he pro- 
ceeded to issue his captain’s commands. 

Captain Dunning went below, and looking into 
Ailie’s berth, nodded his wet head several times 
and smiled with his damp visage benignly — 
which acts, however well meant and kindly they 
might be, were, under the circumstances, quite 
unnecessary, seeing that the child was sound 
asleep. The captain then dried his head and face 
with a towel about as rough as the mainsail of a 
seventy-four, and with a violence that would have 
rubbed the paint off the figure-head of the Red 
Eric. Then he sat down to his chart, and hav- 
ing pondered over it for some minutes, he^went 
to the foot of the companion-ladder, and roared 
up — 


RUNNINa FOR AFRICA. 


107 


^ Lay the course nor’-nor’-east-and-by-nor’-half- 
nor’, Mr. Millons.” 

To which Mr. Millons repKed in an ordinary 
tone, “ Ay, ay, sir,” and then roared — “ Lay her 
head nor’-nor’-east-and-by-nor’-half-nor’,” in an 
unnecessarily loud and terribly fierce tone of voice 
to the steersman, as if that indifidual were in the 
habit of neglecting to obey orders, and required 
to be perpetually threatened in what may be called 
a tone of implication. 

The steersman answered in what to a lands- 
man, would have sounded as a rather amiable 
and forgiving tone of voice — “ Nor’-nor’-east-and- 
by-nor’-half-nor’ it is, sir ; ” and thereupon the di- 
rection of the ship’s head was changed, and the 
Red Eric, according to Tim Rokens, “bowled 
along ” with a stiff breeze on the quarter, at the 
rate of ten knots, for the west coast of Africa. 


108 


THE BED EEIC. 


CHAPTER IX. 

Rambles on Shore, and strange Things and Ceremonies 
witnessed there. 

Variety is charming. No one laying claim to 
the smallest amount of that very uncommon at- 
tribute, common sense, will venture to question 
the truth of that statement. Variety is so charm- 
ing that men and women, boys and girls, are 
always, all of them, hunting after it. To speak 
still more emphatically on this subject, we ven- 
ture to affirm that it is an absolute necessity of 
animal nature. Were any positive and short- 
sighted individual to deny this position, and sit 
down during the remainder of his life in a chair, 
and look straight before him, in order to prove 
that he could live without variety, he would seek 
it in change of position. K he did not do that, 
he would seek it in change of thought. K he did 
not do that^ he would die ! 

Fully appreciating this great principle of our 
nature, and desiring to be charmed with a little 
variety, Tim Rokens and Phil Briant presented 
themselves before Captain Dunning one morning 
about a week after the storm, and asked leave to 
go ashore. The reader may at first think the men 
were mad, but he will change his opinion when we 


RAMBLES ON SHORE. 


109 


tell him that four days after the storm m question 
the Red Eric had anchored in the harbor formed 
by the mouth of one of the rivers on the African 
coast, where white men trade with the natives for 
bar-wood and ivory, and where they also carry 
on that horrible traffic in negroes, the existence 
of which is a foul disgrace to humanity. 

“ Go ashore ! ” echoed Captain Dunning. 
“ Why, if you all go on at this rate, we’ll never 
get ready for sea. However, you may go, but 
don’t wander too far into the interior, and look 
out for elephants and wild men o’ the woods 
boys — keep about the settlements.” 

“ Ay ay, sir, and thank’ee,” replied the two 
men, touching their caps as they retired. 

‘‘ Please sir, I want to go too,” said Glynn 
Proctor, approaching the captain. 

“ What I more wanting to go ashore ? ” 

“ Yes, and so do I,” cried Ailie, running for- 
ward and clasping her father’s rough hand ; “ I 
did enjoy myself so much yesterday, that I must 
go on shore again to-day, and I must go with 
Glynn. He’ll take such famous care of me ; 
now wont you let me, papa? ” 

“ Upon my word, this looks like preconcerted 
mutiny. Plowever, I don’t mind if I do let you 
go, but have a care, Glynn, that you don’t lose 
sight of her for a moment, and keep to the shore 
and the settlements. I’ve no notion of allowing 
her to be swallowed by an alligator, or trampled 
10 


110 


THE KEl) EEIC. 


on by an elephant, or run away with by a go* 
rilla.” 

“ Never fear, sir. You may trust me ; FU take 
good care of her.” 

With a shout of delight the child ran down to 
the cabin to put on her bonnet, and quickly re- 
appeared, carrying in her hand a basket which she 
purposed to fill with a valuable collection of 
plants, minerals, and insects. These she meant 
to preserve and carry home as a surprise to aunts 
Martha and Jane, both of whom were passion- 
ately fond of mineralogy, delighted in botany 
luxuriated in entomology, doted on conchology, 
and raved about geology — all of which sciences 
they studied superficially, and specimens of 
which they collected and labelled beautifully, 
and stowed away carefully in a little cabinet, 
which they termed (not jocularly, but seriously) 
their “ Bureau of Omnology.” 

It was a magnificent tropical morning when the 
boat left the side of the Red Eric and landed 
Glynn and Ailie, Tim Rokens and Phil Briant on 
the wharf that ran out from the yellow beach of 
the harbor in which their vessel lay. The sun 
had just risen. The air was cool (comparatively) 
and ifiotionless, so that the ocean lay spread out 
like a pure mirror, and revealed its treasures and 
mysteries to a depth of many fathoms. The sky 
was intensely blue and the sun intensely bright, 
vrhile the atmosphere was laden with the delight- 


THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE-DEALER. 


Ill 


ful perfume of the woods — a perfume that ia 
sweet and pleasant to those long used to it, how 
much more enchanting to nostrils rendered deli- 
cately sensitive by long exposm^e to the scentless 
gales of ocean ? 

One of the sailors who had shown symptoms 
of weakness in the chest during the voyage, had 
begged to be discharged and left ashore at this 
place. He could ill be spared, but as he was fit 
for nothing, the captain agreed to his request, and 
resolved to procure a negro to act as cook’s as- 
sistant in the place of Phil Briant, who was too 
useful a man to remain in so subordinate a ca- 
pacity. The sick man was therefore sent on 
shore in charge of Tim Rokens. 

On landing they were met by a Portuguese 
slave-dealer, an American trader, a dozen or two 
partially clothed negroes, and a large concourse 
of utterly naked little negro children, who proved 
to demdnstration that they were of the same na- 
ture and spirit with white children, despite the 
color of their skins, by taking intense delight in 
all the amusements practised by the fair-skinned 
juveniles of more northern lands — namely, 
scampering after each other, running and yelling, 
indulging in mischief, spluttering in the water, 
rolling on the sand, staring at the strangers, 
making impudent remarks, and punching each 
other’s heads. 

If the youth of America ever wish to prove that 


112 


THE RED ERIC. 


they are of a distinct race from the sable sons of 
Africa, their only chance is to become paragons 
of perfection, and give up all their wicked ways. 

“ Oh ! ” exclaimed Ailie, half amused, half 
frightened, as Glynn lifted her out of the boat ; 
“ oh ! how funny ! Don’t they look so very like 
as if they were all painted black ? ” 

“ Good day to you, gentlemen,” cried the 
trader, as he approached the landing. “ Got youi 
foretop damaged, I see. Plenty of sticks here to 
mend it. Be glad to assist you in any way I can. 
Was away in the woods when you arrived, else 
I’d have come to offer sooner.” 

The trader, who was a tall sallow man in a 
blue cotton shirt, sailor’s trowsers, and a broad- 
brimmed straw hat, addressed himself to Glynn, 
whose gentlemanly manner led him to believe he 
was in command of the party. 

“ Thank you,” replied Glynn, “ we’ve got a 
little damage — lost a good boat, too, but we’U 
soon repair the mast. We have come ashore 
just now, however, mainly for a stroll.” 

“ Ay,” put in Phil Briant, who was amusing 
the black children and greatly delighting himself 
by nodding and smiling ferociously at them, with 
a view to make a favorable impression on the na- 
tives of this new country. “ Ay, sir, an’ sure 
we’ve come to land a sick shipmate who wants 
to see the doctor uncommon. Have ye sich an 
article in them parts ? ” 


THE* PORTUGUESE SLAVE-DEALER. 


113 


“ No, not exactly,” replied the trader, “ but I 
do a little in that way myself ; perhaps I may 
manage to cure him if he comes up to my house.” 

“We wants a nigger too,” said Rokens, who, 
while the others were talking, was extremely 
busy filling his pipe. 

At this remark the trader looked knowing. 

“ Oh ! ” he said, that’s your game, is it ? 
There’s your man then ; I’ve nothing to do with 
such wares.” He pointed to the Portuguese 
slave-dealer as he spoke. 

Seeing himself thus referred to, the slave-dealer 
came forward, hat in hand, and made a polite 
bow. He was a man of extremely forbidding 
aspect. A long dark visage, which terminated 
in a black peaked beard, and was surmounted 
by a tall crowned broad-brimmed straw hat, stood 
on the top of a long raw-boned, thin, sinewy, 
shrivelled but powerful frame, that had battled 
with and defeated all the fevers and other diseases 
peculiar to the equatorial regions of Africa. He 
wore a short light-colored cotton jacket and pan- 
taloons — the latter much too short for his limbs, 
but the deficiency was more than made up by a 
pair of Wellington boots. His natural look was a 
scowl. His assumed smile of politeness was so 
unnatural, that Tim Rokens thought, as he gazed 
at him, he would have preferred greatly to have 
been frowned at by him. Even Ailie, who did 
Aot naturally think ill of any one, shrank back as 
10 * 


L14 


THE RED ERIC. 


he approached and grasped Glynn’s haiid more 
firmly than usual. 

“ Goot morning, gentPm’n. You vas vish for 
git nigger, I suppose.” 

“ Well, we wos,” replied Tim, with a faint touch 
of sarcasm in his tone. “ Can you get un for us ? ” 

“ Yees, sare, as many you please,” replied the 
slave-dealer, with a wink that an ogre might have 
envied. “ Have great many ob ’em stay vid me 
always.” * 

‘‘ Ah ! then they must be fond o’ bad company,” 
remarked Briant, in an undertone, “ to live along 
wid such a alligator.” 

“ Well, then,” said Tim Rokens, who had com- 
pleted the filling of his pipe, and was now in the 
full enjoyment of it; “let’s see the feller, an’ I’ll 
strike a bargain with him, if he seems a likely 
chap.” 

“ You vill have strike de bargain vid me,” said 
the dealer. “ I vill charge you ver’ leetle, suppose 
you take full cargo.” 

The whole party, who were ignorant of the 
man’s profession, started at this remark, and 
looked at the dealer in surprise. 

“Wot!” exclaimed Tim Rokens, withdraw- 
ing his pipe from his lips ; “ do you sell niggers.” 

“ Yees, to be surely,” replied the man, with a 
peculiarly saturnine smile. 

“ A slave-dealer ? ” exclaimed Briant, clenching 
his fists. 

“ Even so, sare,” 


PHIL briant’s peculiarities. 


115 


At this Briant uttered a shout, and throwing 
forward his clenched fists in a defiant attitude, 
exclaimed between his set teeth, — 

“ An ah ! come on ! ” 

Most men have peculiarities. Phil Briant had 
many ; but iiis most striking peculiarity, and that 
which led him frequently into extremely awkward 
positions, was a firm belief that his special calling 
— in an amateur point of view — was the redress- 
ing of wrongs — not wrongs of a particular class, 
or wrongs of an excessively glaring and offensive 
nature, but all wrongs whatsoever. It mattered 
not to Phil whether the wrong had to be righted 
by force of argument or force of arms. He con- 
sidered himself an accomplished practitioner in 
both lines of business — and in regard to the lat- 
ter his estimate of his powers was not very much 
too high, for he was a broad-shouldered, deep- 
chested, long-armed fellow, and had acquired a 
scientific knowledge of boxing under a celebrated 
bruiser at the expense of a few hard-earned shil- 
lings, an occasional bottle of poteen, and many a 
severe thrashing. 

Justice to Phil’s amiability of character re- 
quires, however, that we should state that he never 
sought to terminate an argument with his fists un- 
less he was invited to do so, and even then he in- 
variably gave his rash challenger lair warning, and 
offered to let him retreat if so disposed. But when 
injustice met his eye or when he happened to see 


116 


THE llEH ERIC. 


cruelty practised by the strong against the weak, 
his blood fired at* once, and he only deigned the 
short emphatic remark — “ Come on,’’ sometimes 
preceded by “ Arrah ! ” sometimes not. Gene- 
rally speaking, he accepted his own challenge, 
and went on forthwith. 

Of all the iniquities that draw forth the groans 
of humanity on this sad earth, slavery, in the 
opinion of Phil Briant, was the worst. He had 
never come in contact with it, not having been 
in the Southern States of America. He knew 
from hearsay that the coast of Africa was its 
fountain, but he had forgotten the fact, and in 
the novelty of the scene before him, it did not at 
first occur to him that he w^as actually face to 
face with a “ live slave-dealer.” 

“ Let me go ! ” roared the Irishman, as he 
struggled in the iron gripe of Tim Rokens, and 
the not less powerful grasp of Glynn Proctor. 
“ Och ! let me go ! Doo^ darlints. I’ll only give 
him wan — jist wan ! Let me go, will ye ? ” 

“ Not if I can help it,” said Glynn, tightening 
his grasp. 

“Wot a cross helephant it is,” muttered Ro- 
kens, as he thrust his hand into his comrade’s 
neckcloth and quietly began to choke him as he 
dragged him away toward the residence of the 
trader, who was an amused as well as surprised 
spectator of this unexpected ebullition of passion. 

At length Phil Briant allowed himself to be 


THE TRADER. 


117 


forced away from the beach wnere the slave- 
dealer stood with his arms crossed on his breast, 
and a sarcastic smile playing on his thin lips. 
Had that Portuguese trafficker in human flesh 
known how quickly Briant could have doubled 
the size of his long nose and shut up both his 
eyes, he would probably have modified the ex- 
pression of his countenance ; but he didn’t know 
it, so he looked after the party until they had en- 
tered the dwelling of the trader, and then saun- 
tered up toward the woods, which in this place 
came down to within a few yards of the beach. 

The settlement was a mere collection of rudely- 
constructed native huts, built of bamboos and 
roofed with a thatch of palm-leaves. In the 
midst of it stood a pretty white-painted cottage 
with green-edged windows and doors, and a ve- 
randah in front. This was the dwelling of the 
trader ; and alongside of it, under the same roof, 
was the store, in which were kept the guns, beads, 
powder, and shot, etc. etc., which he exchanged 
with the natives of the interior for elephants’ tusks 
and bar-wood, from which latter a beautiful dye 
is obtained ; also ebony, India-rubber, and other 
products of the country. 

Here the trader entertained Tim Rokens and 
Phil Briant with stories of the slave-trade ; and 
here we shall leave them while we follow Glynn 
and Ailie, who went off together to ramble along 
the shore of the calm sea. 


18 


THE RED ERIC. 


They had not gone far when specimens of the 
strange creatures that dwell in these lands pre- 
sented themselves to their astonished gaze. 
There were birds innumerable on the shore, on 
the surface of the ocean, and in the woods. The 
air was alive with them ; many being similar to 
the birds they had been familiar with from infan- 
cy, while others were new and strange. 

To her immense delight Ailie saw many living 
specimens of the bird-of-paradise, the graceful 
plumes of which she had frequently beheld on 
very high and important festal occasions, nodding 
on the heads of Aunt Martha and Aunt Jane. 
But the prettiest of aU the birds she saw there 
was a small creature with a breast so red and 
bright, that it seemed, as it flew about, like a lit- 
tle ball of fire. There were many of them flying 
about near a steep bank, in holes of which they 
built their nests. She observed that they fed 
upon flies which they caught while skimming 
through the air, and afterwards learned that they 
were called bee-eaters. 

“Oh! look!” exclaimed Ailie, in that tone ot 
voice which indicated that a surprising discovery 
had been made. Ailie was impulsive, and the 
tones in which she exclaimed “ Oh ! ” were so va- 
ried, emphatic, and distinct, that those who knew 
lier well could tell exactly the state of her mind on 
hearing the exclamation. At present, her “ Oh ! ” 
indicated surprise mingled with alarm. 


A SEEPENT IN THE GRASS. 


119 


“ Eh ! what, where ? ” cried Glynn, throwing 
forward his musket — for he had taken the pre- 
caution to carry one with him, not knowing 
what he might meet with on such a coast. 

“ The snake ! look — oh ! ” 

At that moment a huge black snake, about 
ten feet long, showed itself in* the grass. Glynn 
took aim at once, but the piece being an old 
flint-lock, missed fire. Before he could again 
take aim the loathsome-looking reptile had glid- 
ed into the underwood, which in most places was 
so overgrown with the rank and gigantic vegeta- 
tion of the tropic^ as to be quite impenetrable. 

“ Ah ! he’s gone, Ailie ! ” cried Glynn, in a 
tone of disappointment, as he put fresh priming 
into the pan of his piece. “ We must be careful 
in walking here, it seems. This wretched old 
musket ! Lucky for us that our lives did not 
depend on it. I wonder if it was a poisonous 
serpent ? ” 

‘‘ Perhaps it was,” said Ailie, with a look of 
deep solemnity, as she took her companion’s left 
hand, and trotted along by his side. “ Are not 
all serpents poisonous ? ” 

“ Oh dear, no ! Why, there are some kinds 
that are quite harmless. But as I don’t know 
which are and which are not, we must look upon 
all as enemies until we become more knowing.” 

Presently they came to the mouth of a river — 
one of those sluggish streams on the African 


120 THE RED ERIC. 

coast, which suggest the idea of malaria and the 
whole family of low fevers. It glided through 
a mango swamp, where the trees seemed to be 
standing on their roots, which served the purpose 
of stilts to keep them out of the mud. The river 
was oily, and sluggish, and hot-looking, and its 
mud-banks were slimv and liquid, so that it was 
not easy to say whether the water of the river 
was mud, or the mud on the bank was water 
It was a place that made one involuntarily 
think of creeping monsters, and crawling objects, 
and slimy things ! 

“ Look ! oh ! oh I such a darling pet ! ” exclaim- 
ed Ailie, as they stood near the banks of this 
river wondering what monster would first cleave 
the muddy waters, and raise its hideous head. 
She pointed to the bough of a dead tree near 
which they stood, and on which sat the “ darling 
pet ” referred to. It was a very small monkey 
with white whiskers ; a dumpy Little thing, that 
looked at them with an expression of surprise 
quite equal in intensity to their own. 

Seeing that it was discovered, the “ darling 
pet ” opened its little mouth, and uttered a suc- 
cession of “ Ohs ! ” that rendered Ailie’s exclama- 
tions quite insignificant by comparison. They 
were sharp and short, and rapidly uttered, while, 
at the same time, two rows of most formidable 
teeth were bared, along with the gums that held 
them 


A COMICAL MONKEY. 121 

At this Ailie and her companion burst into a 
fit of irrepressible laughter, whereupon the “ dar- 
ling pet ” put itself into such a passion — grin- 
ned, and coughed, and gasped, and shook the 
tree, and writhed, and glared, to such an extent 
tliat Glynn said he thought it would burst, and 
Ailie agreed that it was very likely. Finding 
that this terrible display of fury had no effect on 
the strangers, the “ darling pet ” gave utterance 
to a farewell shriek of passion, and, bounding 
nimbly into the woods, disappeared. 

“ Oh, what a funny beast ! ” said Ailie, sitting 
down on a stone, and drying her eyes, which 
had filled with tears, from excessive laughter. 

“ Indeed it was,” said Glynn. “ It’s my opin- 
ion that a monkey is the funniest beast in the 
world.” 

“ No, Glynn ; a kitten’s funnier,” said Ailie, 
with a degree of emphasis that showed she had 
considered the subject well, and had fully made 
up her mind in regard to it long ago. “ I think 
a kitten’s the very funniest beast in all the whole 
world.” 

“ Well, perhaps it is,” said Glynn, thought- 
fully. 

“ Did you ever see three kittens together ? ” 
asked Ailie. 

“ No ; I don’t think I ever did. I doubt if 1 
have seen even two together. Why ? ” 

“ Oh ! because they are so very, very funny 

11 


122 


THE RED ERIC. 


Sit down beside me, and I’ll tell you about three 
kittens I once had. They were very little — at 
least they were little before they got big.” 

Glynn laughed. 

‘‘ Oh ! you know what I mean. They were 
able to play when they were very little, you 
know.” 

“ Yes, yes, I understand. Go on.” 

“ Well, two were gray, and one was white and 
gray, but most of it was white ; and when they 
went to play, one always hid itself to watch, 
and then the other two began, and came up to 
each other with little jumps, and their backs up 
and tails curved, and hair all on end, glaring at 
each other, and pretending that they were so 
angry. Do you know, Glynn, I really believe 
they sometimes forgot it was pretence, and actu- 
ally became angry. But the fun was, that, when 
the two were just going to fly at each other, the 
third one, who had been watching, used to dart 
out and give them such a fright — a real fright, 
you know — which made them jump, oh ! three 
times their own height up into the air, and they 
came down again with a fuff that put the third 
one in a fright too ; so that they all scattered 
away from each other as if they had gone quite 
mad. What’s that ? ” 

“ It’s a fish, I think,” said Glynn, rising and 
going toward the river to look at the object 
that had attracted his companion’s attention. 

It’s a shark, I do believe.” 


THE YOUNG PHILOSOPHEKS. 


123 


In a few seconds the creature came so close that 
tney could see it quite distinctly ; and on a more 
careful inspection, they observed that the mouth 
of the river was full of these ravenous monsters. 
Soon after they saw monsters of a still more 
ferocious aspect ; for while they were watching 
the sharks, two crocodiles put up their snouts, 
and crawled sluggishly out of the water upon a 
mud-bank, where they lay down, apparently with 
the intention of taking a nap in the sunshine. 
They were too far off, however, to be well seen. 

“ IsnT it strange, Glynn, that there are such 
ugly beasts in the world,” said Ailie. ‘‘ I wonder 
why God made them ? ” 

“ So do I,” said Glynn, looking at the child’s 
thoughtful face in some surprise. I suppose they 
must be of some sort of use.” 

Oh ! yes, of course they are,” rejoined Ailie, 
quickly. Aunt Martha and Aunt Jane used to 
tell me that every creature was made by God for 
some good purpose ; and when I came to the 
crocodile in my book, they said it was certainly 
of use, too, though they did not know what. I 
remember it very well, because I was so surprised 
to hear that Aunt Martha and Aunt Jane did not 
know every thing,^^ 

“ No doubt Aunt Martha and Aunt Jane were 
right,” said Glynn, with ^a smile. “ I confess, 
however, that crocodiles seem to me to be of no 
other use than to kill and eat up every thing that 


124 


THE RED ERIC. 


comes within the reach of their terrible jaws. 
But, indeed, now I think of it, the very same 
may be said of man, for he kills and eats up at 
least every thing that he wants to put into his 
jaws.” 

“ So he does,” said Ailie ; “ isn’t it funny ? ” 

“ Isn’t what funny ? ” asked Glynn. 

“ That we should be no better than crocodiles 

at least — I mean about eating.” 

“ You forget, Ailie, we cook our food.” 

“ Oh ! so we do. I did not remember to think 
of that. That’s a great difference, indeed.” 

Leaving Glynn and his little charge to philos- 
ophize on the resemblance between men and 
crocodiles, we shall now return to Tim Rokens 
and Phil Briant, whom we left in the trader’s 
cottage. 

The irate Irishman had been calmed down bj' 
reason and expostulation, and had again been 
roused to great indignation several times since 
we left him, by the account of things connected 
with the slave-trade given him by the trader 
who, although he had no interest in it himself, 
did not feel very much aggrieved by the suffer- 
ings he witnessed around him. 

“ You don’t mane to tell me, now, that whalers 
comes in here for slaves, do ye?” said Briant, 
placing his two fists pn his two knees, and thrust- 
ing his head toward the trader, who admitted 
that he meant to say that ; and that he meant, 


THE SLAVE-TRADE. 


125 


moreover, to add, that the thing was by no 
means of rare occurrence — that whaling ships 
occasionally ran into that very port on their way 
south, shipped a cargo of negroes, sold them at 
the nearest slave-buying port they could make 
on the American coast, and then proceeded on 
their voyage, no one being a whit the wiser. 

“ You don’t mean it ? ” remarked Tim Rokens 
crossing his legs and devoting himself to his pipe 
with the air of a naan who mourned the depravity 
of his species, but did not feel called upon to 
disturb his equanimity very much because of it. 

Phil Briant clenched his teeth, and glared. 

“ Indeed I do mean it,” reiterated the trader. 
^ Would you believe it, there was one whaler 
put in here, and what does he do but go and in- 
vite a lot o' free blacks aboard to have a blow- 
out ; and no sooner did he get them down into 
the hold than he shut down the hatches, sailed 
away, and sold ’em every one.” 

“ Ah ! morther, couldn’t I burst ? ” groaned 
Phil ; an’ ov coorse they left a lot o’ fatherless 
children and widders behind ’em.” 

“ They did ; but all the widows are married 
again, and most of the children are grown up.” 

Briant looked as if he did not feel quite sure 
whether he ought to regard this as a comforting 
piece of information or the reverse,, and wisely 
remained silent 

“ And now you must excuse me if I leave you 
IX* 


126 


THE RED ERIC. 


to ramble about alone for some time, as I have 
business to transact; meanwhile I’ll introduce 
you to a nigger who will show you about the 
place, and one who, if I mistake not, wiU gladly 
accompany you to sea as steward’s assistant. 

The trader opened a door which led to the 
back part of his premises, and shouted to a stout 
negro who was sawing wood there, and who 
came forward with alacrity. 

“ Ho ! Neepeelootambo, go take these gentle- 
men round about the vihage, and let them see 
all that is to be seen.” 

“ Yes, massa.” 

“ And they’ve got something to say to you 
about going to sea — would you like to go ? ” 

The negro grinned, and as his mouth was of 
Ihe largest possible size, it is not exaggeration to 
say that the grin extended from ear to ear, but 
he made no other reply. 

“ Well, please yourself. You’re a free man — 
you may do as you choose.” 

Neepeelootambo, who was almost naked, hav- 
ing only a small piece of cloth wrapped round 
his waist and loins, grinned again, displaying a 
double row of teeth worthy of a shark in so do 
ing, and led his new friends from the house. 

“ Now,” said Tim Rokens, turning to the ne- 
gro, and pointing along the shore, “ we’ll go 
along this way and jaw the matter over. Busi- 
ness fust, and pleasure if ye can get it, arter- 


A STRANGE “ NIGGER.” 


127 


wards — them’s' my notions, Nip — Nip — Nipp 
— what’s your name ? ” 

“ Coo Tumble, I think,” suggested Briant. 

“ Ay, Nippiloo Bumble — wot a jaw-breaker' 
so git along, old boy.” 

The negro, who was by no means an “ old boy,” 
but a stalwart man in the prime of life, stepped 
out, and as they walked along, both Rokens and 
Briant did their best to persuade him to ship on 
board the Red Eric, but without success. They 
were somewhat surprised as well as chagrined, 
having been led to expect that the man would con- 
sent at once. But no alluring pictures of the delights 
of seafaring life, or the pleasures and excitements 
of the whale-fishery, had the least effect on their 
sable companion. Even sundry shrewd hints, 
thrown out by Phil Briant, that the “ steward had 
always command o’ the wittles, and that his as- 
sistant would ohly have to help himself when 
convanient,” failed to move him. 

“ Well, Nippi-Boo-Tumble,” cried Tim Ro 
kens, who in his disappointment unceremoniously 
contracted his name, ‘‘ it’s my opinion — private 
opinion, mark’ee — that you’re a ass, an’ you’U 
come for to repent of it.” 

“ Troth, Nippi-Bumble, he’s about right,” added 
Briant, coaxingly. “ Come now, avic, wot’s the 
raisin ye won’t go ? Sure we ain’t blackguards 
enough to ax ye to come for to be sold ; it’s all 
fair an’ above board. Why won’t ye now ? ” 


128 


THE RED ERIC. 


The negro stopped, and turning toward them^ 
drew himself proudly up ; then, as if a sudden 
thought had occurred to him, he advanced a step 
and held up his forefinger to impose silence. 

“ You no tell what I go to say ? at least, not for 
one, two day.” 

“ Niver a word, honor bright ! ” said Phil, in a 
confidential tone, while Rokens expressed the 
same sentiment by means of an emphatic wink 
and nod. 

“ You mus’ know,” said the negro, earnestly, 
“ me expec’s to be made a king ! ” 

“ A wot? ” exclaimed both his companions in 
the same breath, and very much in the same tone. 

« A king.” 

“ Wot! ” said Rokens ; “ d’ye mean a ruler of 
this here country ? ” 

“ Neepeelootambo nodded his head so violently 
that it was a marvel it remained on his shoulders 

“ Yis. Ho ! ho ! ho ! ’xpec’s to be a king.” 

“ And when are ye to be crowned. Bumble ? ” 
inquired Briant, rather sceptically, as the^ re- 
sumed their walk. 

“ Oh, me no say me goin^ to be king ; me onl3’ 
^xpec’s dat.” 

“ Werry good,” returned Rokens ; but wot 
makes ye for to expect it ? ” 

“ Aha ! Me berry clebber fellow — know most 
ebbery ting. Me hab doo’d good service to dis 
herf (country. Me can fight like one leopard, and 


A WONDERFUL PROCEEDING. 


129 


me hab kill great few elephant and gorilla. Not 
much mans here hab shoot de gorilla, him sich 
terriferick beast ; ’bove five foot six tall, and big- 
ger round de breast dan you or me — dat is a great 
true fact. Also, me can spok’ Englis’.” 

“ An’ so you expec’s they’re goin’ to make you 
a king for all that.” 

“ Yis, dat is fat me ’xpec’s, for our old king be 
just dead ; but dey nebber tell who dey going to 
make king till dey do it. I not more sure ob it 
dan the nigger dat walk dere before you.” 

Neepeelootambo pointed as he spoke to a negro 
who certainly had a more kingly aspect l^an any 
native they had yet seen. He was a perfect giant, 
considerably above six feet high, and broad in pro- 
portion. He wore no clothing on the upper part 
of his person, but his legs were encased in a pair 
of old canvas trousers, which had been made for 
a man of ordinary stature, so that his huge bony 
ankles were largely exposed to view. 

Just as Phil and Rokens stopped to take a good 
look at him before passing on, a terrific yell issued 
firom the bushes, and instantly after, a negro ran 
toward the black giant, and administered to him 
a severe kick on the thigh, following it up with a 
cuff on the side of the head, at the same time howl- 
ing something in the native tongue, which our 
friends of course did not understand. This man 
was immediately followed by three other blacks, 
one of whom pulled the giant’s hair, the other 
puUed his nose, and the third spat in his face .’ 


130 


THE RED ERIC. 


It is needless to remark that the sailors wit- 
nessed this unprovoked assault with unutterable 
amazement. But the most remarkable part of it 
was, that the fellow, instead of knocking all his 
assailants down, as he might have done without 
much trouble, quietly submitted to the indignities 
heaped upon him ; nay, he even smiled upon his 
tormentors, who increased in numbers every min- 
ute, running out from among the bushes, and sur- 
rounding the unoffending man, and uttering wild 
shouts as they maltreated him. 

“ Wot’s he bin doin' ? ” inquired Rokens, turn- 
ing to hisi^black companion. But Rokens received 
no answer, for Neepeelootambo was looking on 
at the scene with an expression so utterly wo- 
begone and miserable, that one would imagine 
he was himself suffering the rough usage he wit- 
nessed. 

“ Arrah ! ye don’t appear to be chairful,” said 
Briant, laughing, as he looked in the negro’s face. 
“ This is a quare counthrie, an’ no mistake ; it 
seems to be always bio win’ a gale of surprises. 
Wot’s wrong wid ye. Bumble ? ” 

The negi’o groaned. 

“ Sure that may be a civil answer, but it’s not 
o’ much use. Hallo! what air they doin’ wid 
the poor cratur now ? ” 

As he spoke, the crowd seized the black giant 
by the arms and neck and hair, and dragged him 
away toward the village, leaving our friends in 
solitude. 


KINa-MAKING EXTRAORDINARY. 


13J 


“ A ver\ purty little scene,’’ remarked Phil Bri 
ant, when they were out of sight ; “ very purty 
indade, av we only knowed wot it’s all about.” 

If the surprise of the two sailors was great at 
what they had just witnessed, it was increased 
ten-fold by the subsequent behavior of their ne 
gro companion. 

That eccentric individual suddenly checked his 
groans, gave vent to a long deep sigh, and as- 
suming a resigned expression of countenance, 
rose up and said, 

“ Ho ! It all ober now, massa.” 

“I do believe,” remarked Rokens, looking 
gravely at his shipmate, “ that the feller’s had an 
attack o’ the moUygrumbles, an’s got better all 
of a suddint.” 

“ No, massa, dat not it. But me willin’ to go 
wid you now to de sea.” 

“ Eh ! willin’ to go ? Why, Nippi-too-cumble, 
wot a rum customer you are, to be sure ! ” 

“ Yis, massa,” rejoined the negro. “ Me not 
goin’ to- be king now, anyhow ; so it ob no use 
stoppin’ here. Me go to sea.” 

“ Not goin’ to be king ? How d’ye know that? ’’ 

“ ’Cause dat oder nigger, him be made king in 
a berry short time. You mus’ know, dat w’en 
dey make wan king in dis here place, de people 
choose de man ; but dey not let him know. He 
may guess if him please — like me — but p’raps 
him guess wrong — like me! Ho! ho! Den 


132 


THE RED ERIC. 


arter dey fix on de man, dey run at him and kick 
him, as you hab seen dem do, and spit on him, 
and trow mud ober him, tollin’ him all de time, 
‘ You no king yet, you black rascal ; you soon 
be king, and den you may put your foots on our 
necks and do w’at you like, but not yit: take 
dat, you teif ! ’ An’ so dey ’buse him for a littel 
time. Den dey take him straight away to de 
palace and crown him, an’, oh ! arter dat dey be- 
come very purlite to him. Him know dat well 
’nuff, and so him not be angry just now. Ah ! 
me did ’xpec’ to hab bin kick and spitted on dis 
berry day ! ” 

Poor Neepeelootambo uttered the last words in 
such a deeply touching tone, and seemed to be so 
much cast down at the thought that his chance 
of being “ kicked and spitted upon ” had passed 
away forever, that Phil Briant burst into a hearty 
fit of laughter, and Tim Rokens exhibited symp- 
toms of internal risibility, though his outward 
physiognomy remained unchanged. 

“ Och ! Bumble, you’U be the death o’ me,” 
cried Briant. “ An’ are they a-crownin’ of him 
now ? ” 

“ Yis, massa. Dat what dey go for to do jist 
now.” 

“ Troth, then. I’ll go an’ inspict the coronation. 
Come along. Bumble, me darlint, and show us 
the way ” 

In a few minutes Neepeelootambo conducted 


KING-MAKING EXTKAORDINAKT. 


133 


his new friends into a large rudely-constructed 
hut, which was open on three sides and thatched 
with palm-leaves. This was the palace before 
referred to by him. Here they found a large 
concourse of negroes, whose main object at that 
time seemed to be the creation of noise ; for be- 
sides yelling and hooting, they beat a variety of 
native drums, some of which consisted of bits of 
board, and others of old tin and copper kettles. 
Forcing their way through the noisy throng they 
reached the inside of the hut, into which they 
found that Ailie Dunning and Glynn Proctor had 
pushed their way before them. Giving them a 
nod of recognition, they sat down on a mat by 
their side to watch the proceedings, which by 
this time were nearly concluded. 

The new king — who was about to fill the 
throne rendered vacant by the recent death of the 
old king of that region — was seated on an ele- 
vated stool looking very dignified, despite the 
rough ordeal through which he had just passed. 
When the noise above referred to had calmed 
down, an old gray-headed negro rose and made 
a speech in the language of the country, after 
which he advanced and crowned the new king, 
who had already been invested in a long scarlet 
coat covered with tarnished gold-lace, and cut in 
the form peculiar to the last century. The crown 
consisted of an ordinary black-silk hat, consider- 
ably the worse for wear. It looked familiar and 
12 


134 THE RED ERIC. 

common-place enough in the eyes of theif 
white visitors ; but, being the only specimen of 
the article in the district, it was regarded by the 
negroes with peculiar admiration, and deemed 
worthy to decorate the brows of royalty. 

Having had this novel crown placed o^i the top 
of his woolly pate, which was much Voo large 
for it, the new king hit it an emphatic blow or 
the top, partly with a view to force it on, and 
partly, no doubt, with the design of impressing 
his new subjects with the fact that he was now 
their rightful sovereign, and that he meant thence- 
forth to exercise all the authority, and avail him- 
self of all the privileges that his high position 
conferred on him. He then rose and made a 
pretty long speech, which was frequ-!ntly ap- 
plauded, and which terminated amid a. most up- 
roarious demonstration of loyalty on the part of 
the people. 

If you wish to gladden the heart of a black 
man, reader, get him into the midst of an appall- 
ing noise. The negro's delight is to shout, and 
laugh, and yell, and beat tin kettles with iron 
spoons. The greater the noise, the more he en- 
joys himself. Great guns and musketry, gongs 
and brass bands, kettledrums and smashing 
crockery, crashing railway-engines blending their 
utmost whistles with the shrieks of a thousand 
pigs being killed, all going at once, full blast, and 
as near to him as possible, is a species of Ely- 


ROYAL FESTIVITIES. 


13fi 


sium to the sable son of Africa. On their occa- 
sions of rejoicing, negroes procure and produce 
as much noise as is possible, so that the white 
visitors were soon glad to seek shelter, and find 
relief to their ears, on board ship. 

But even there the sounds of rejoicing reached 
them, and long after the curtain of night had en- 
shrouded land and sea, the hideous din of royal 
festivities came swelling out with the soft warm 
breeze that fanned Ailie’s cheek as she stood on 
the quarter-deck of the Red . Eric, watching the 
wild antics of the naked savages as they danced 
round their* bright fires, and holding her father’s 
hand tightly as she related the day’s adventures, 
and told of the monkeys, crocodiles, and other 
strange creatures she had seen in the mangrove- 
swamps and on the mud-banks of the slimy river. 


130 


THE RED ERIC. 


CHAPTER X. 

Aji Inland Journey. — Sleeping in the Woods. — Wild Beasts evety- 
where. — Sad Fate of a Gazelle. 

The damage sustained by the Red Eric during 
the storm was found to be more severe than was 
at first supposed. Part of her false keel had been 
torn away by a sunken rock, over which the vessel 
had passed, and scraped so lightly that no one on 
board was aware of the fact, yet with sufficient 
force to cause the damage to which we have re- 
ferred. A slight leak was also discovered, and the 
injury to the top of the foremast was neither so 
easily nor so quickly repaired as had been antici- 
pated. 

It thus happened that the vessel was detained 
on this part of the African coast for nearly a couple 
of weeks, during which time Ailie had frequent 
opportunities of going on shore, sometimes in 
charge of Glynn, sometimes with Tim Rokens, 
and occasionally with her father. 

During these little excursions the child lived in 
a world of romance. Not only were the animals 
and plants, and objects of every kind with which 
she came in contact, entirely new to her, except 
in so far as she had made their acquaintance in 
pictures, but she invested every thing in the ro- 


ailie’s speculative inquiries. 


137 


seate hue peculiar to her own romantic mind. 
True, she saw many things that caused her a 
good deal of pain, and she heard a few stories 
about the terrible cruelty of the negroes to each 
other, which made her shudder, but unpleasant 
thoughts did not dweU long on her mind ; she 
soon forgot the little annoyances or frights she 
experienced, and revelled in the enjoyment of the 
beautiful sights and sweet perfumes which more 
than counterbalanced the bad odors and ugly 
things that came across her path. 

Ailie’s mind was a very inquiring one, and often 
and long did she ponder the things she saw, and 
wonder why God made some so very ugly and 
some so very pretty, and to what use He intended 
them to be put. Of course, in such speculative 
inquiries, she was frequently very much puzzled, 
as also were the companions to whom she pro- 
pounded the questions from time to time ; but 
she had been trained to believe that every thing 
that was made by God was good, whether she 
understood it or not; and she noticed particu- 
larly, and made an involuntary memorandum of 
the fact in her own mind, that ugly things were 
very few in number, while beautiful objects were 
absolutely innumerable. 

The trader, who rendered good assistance to 
Captain Dunning in the repair of his ship, fre- 
quently overheard Ailie wishing “ so much” that 
she might be allowed to go far into the wild 
12 * 


138 


THE RED ERIC. 


woods, and one day suggested to the captain that, 
as the ship would have to remain a week or more 
in port, he would be glad to take a party on an ex- 
cursion up the river in his canoe, and show them 
a little of forest life, saying at the same time that 
,the little girl might go too, for they were not 
likely to encounter any danger which might not 
be easily guarded against. 

At first, the captain shook his head, remember- 
ing the stories that were afloat, regarding the wild 
beasts of those regions. But, on second thoughts, 
he agreed to allow a well-armed party to accom- 
pany the trader ; the more so that he was urged 
thereto, very strongly by Dr. Hopley, who being 
a naturalist, was anxious to procure specimens of 
the creatures and plants in the interior, and being 
a phrenologist, was desirous of examining what 
Glynn termed the “ bumpological developments 
of the negro skull.’’ 

On still further considering the matter. Captain 
Dunning determined to leave the first mate in 
charge of the ship, head the exploring party him- 
self, and take Aflie along with him. 

To say that Ailie was delighted, would be to 
understate the fact very much. She was wild 
with joy, and went about all the day, after her 
father’s decision was announced, making every 
species of insane preparation for the canoe .voy- 
age, clasping her hands, and exclaiming, “ Oh ! 
v)hat fun ! ’ "'•:'hile her bright eyes sparkled to such 


THE GREAT EXCURSION. 


139 


an extent, that the sailors fairly laughed in her 
face when they looked at her. 

Preparations were soon made. The party con- 
sisted of the captain and his little child, Glynn 
Proctor (of course). Dr. Hopley, Tim Rokens, 
Phil Briant, Jim Scroggles, the trader, and Nee- 
peelootambo, which last had been by that time 
regularly domesticated on board, and was now 
known by the name of King Bumble, which name, 
being as good as his own, and more pronounce- 
able, we shall adopt from this time forward. 

The very morning after the proposal was made, 
the above party embarked in the trader’s canoe ; 
and plying their paddles with the energy of men 
bent on what is vulgarly termed “ going the whole 
hog,” they quickly found themselves out of sight 
of their natural element, the ocean, and surrounded 
by the wild, rich, luxuriant vegetation of equa- 
torial Africa. 

‘‘ Now,” remarked Tim Rokens, as they ceased 
paddling, and ran the canoe under the shade of 
a broad palm-tree that overhung the river, in order 
to take a short rest and a smoke, after a steady 
paddle of some miles — “ Now this is wot I calls 
glorious, so it is ! Ain’t it. Pass the ’baccy this 
way.” 

This double remark was made to King Bum- 
ble, who passed the tobacco-pouch to his friend, 
after helping himself, and admitted that it waa 

mngnifercent.” 


140 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Here have I bin a eittin’ in this here canoe,” 
continued Rokens, “ for more nor two hom*s, an’, 
to my sartin knowledge I’ve seed with my two 
eyes twelve sharks (tor I. counted ’em every one) 
at the mouth of the river, and two crocodiles, and 
the snout of a hopplepittimus ; is that wot ye 
calls it ? ” 

Rokens addressed his question to the captain, 
but Phil Briant, who had just succeeded in get- 
ting his pipe to draw beautifully, answered in- 
stead. 

“ Och ! no,” said he ; “ that’s not the way to 
purnounce it at aU, at aU. It’s a huppi-puppi- 
puttimus.” 

“ I dun know,” said Rokens, shaking his head 
gravely ; “ it appears to me there’s too many 
huppi-puppies in that word.” 

This debate caused Ailie infinite amusement, 
for she experienced considerable difficulty her- 
self in pronouncing that name, and had a very 
truthful picture of the hippopotamus hanging at 
that moment in her room at home. 

“ Isn’t Tim Rokens very funny, papa ? ” she 
remarked in a whisper, looking up in her father’s 
face. 

“ Hush ! my pet, and look yonder. There is 
something funnier, if I mistake not.” 

He ^ pointed, as he spoke, to a ripple in the 
water on the opposite side of the river, close 
under a bank which was clothed with rank. 


VAIN ATTEMPT TO SHOOT CROCODILE. 141 


broad-leaved^ and sedgy vegetation. In a few 
seconds a large crocodile put up its head, noi 
further off than twenty yards from the canoe, 
which apparently it did not see, and, opening its 
tremendous jaws, afforded the travellers a splen- 
did view of its teeth and throat. Briant after- 
wards asserted that he could see down its throat, 
and could almost tell what it had had for dinner! 

“ Plaze, sir, may I shot him ? ” cried Briant, 
seizing his loaded musket, and looking toward 
the captain' for permission. 

“ IPs of no use while in that position,” remark- 
ed the trader, who regarded the hideous-look- 
ing monster with the calm unconcern of a man 
accustomed to such sights. 

“ You may try,” said the captain with a grin. 
Almost before the words had left his lips Phil 
took a rapid aim and fired. At the same iden- 
tical moment the crocodile shut his jaws with a 
snap, as if he had an intuitive perception that 
something uneatable was coming. The bullet 
consequently hit his forehead, off which it 
glanced as if it had struck a plate of cast-iron 
IThe reptile gave a wabble, expressive of lazy sur- 
prise, and sank slowly back into the slimy water 

The shot startled more than one huge creature, 
for immediately afterwards they heard several 
flops in the water near them, but the tall sedges 
prevented their seeing what animals they were 
A whole troop of monkeys, too, went shrieking 


142 


THE RED ERIO. 


away into the woods, showing that those nimble 
creatures had been watching all their movements 
although, until that moment, they had taken 
good care to keep themselves out of sight. 

“ Never fire at a crocodile’s head,” said the 
trader, as the party resumed their paddles, and 
continued their ascent of the stream ; “ you might 
as well fire at a stonewall. It’s as hard as iron. 

The only place that’s sure to kdl is just behind 
the fore-leg. The niggers always spear them 
there.” 

“ What do they spear them for ? ” asked Dr. 
Hopley. 

“ They eat ’em,” replied the trader ; “ and the 
meat’s not so bad after you get used to it.” 

“ Ha ! ” exclaimed Glynn Proctor ; “ I should 
fancy tlie great difficulty is to get used to it.” 

“ If you ever chance to go for a week without 
tasting fresh meat,” replied the trader, quietly, 
you’ll not find it so difficult as you think.” 

That night the travellers encamped in the 
woods, and a wild charmingly romantic scene 
their night bivouac was — so thought Ailie, and 
so, too, would you have thought, reader, had you 
been there. King Bumble managed to kindle 
three enormous fires, for the triple purpose of 
keeping the party warm — for it was cold at 
night — of scaring away wild beasts, and of 
cooking their supper. These fires he fed at in- 
tervals during the whole night .with huge logs, 


ENCAMPED IN THE WOODS.. 143 

and the w ay in which he made the sparks fly up 
in among the strange big leaves of the tropical 
trees and parasitical plants overhead, was quite 
equal, if not superior, to a display of regular 
fireworks. 

Then Bumble and Glynn built a little platform 
of logs, on whifjh they strewed leaves^ and grass, 
and over which they spread a curtain or canopy 
of broad leaves and boughs. This was Ailie’s 
couch. It stood in the fuU blaze of the centre 
fire, and commanded a view of all that was going 
on in every part of the little camp ; and when 
Ailie lay down on it, after a good supper, and 
was covered up with a blanket, and further cov- 
ered over with a sort of gauze netting to protect 
her from the mosquitoes, which were very numer- 
ous, — when aU this was done, we say, and when, 
in addition to this, she lay and witnessed the 
jovial laughter and enjoyment of His Majesty 
King Bumble, as he sat at the big fire smoking 
his pipe, and the supreme happiness of Phil 
Briant, and the placid joy of Tim Rokens, and 
the exuberant delight of Glynn, and the semi- 
scientific enjoyment of Dr. Hopley as he exam- 
ined a collection of rare plants; and the quiel 
comfort of the trader, and the awkward, sham- 
bling, loose-jointed pleasure of long Jim Scrog- 
gles ; and the beaming felicity of her own dear 
father, who sat not far from her, and turned 
occasionally in the midst of the conversation to 


144 


THE BED ERIC. 


give her a nod — she felt in her heart that then 
and there she had fairly reached the very happi- 
est moment in all her life. 

Ailie gazed in dreamy delight until she suddenly 
and unaccountably saw at least six fires, and fully 
half a dozen Bumbles, and eight or nine Glynns, 
and no end of fathers, and thousands of trees, 
and millions of sparks, all jumbled together in 
one vast complicated and magnificent pyrotech- 
nic display ; and then — she fell asleep. 

It is a curious fact, and one for which it is not 
easy to account, that however happy you may be 
when you go to sleep out in the wild woods, you 
invariably awake in the morning in possession of 
a very small amount of happiness indeed. Prob- 
ably, it is because one in such circumstances is 
usually called upon to turn out before he has had 
enough sleep ; perhaps it may be that the fires 
have burned low or gone out altogether, and the 
gloorn of a forest before sunrise is not calculated 
to elevate the spirits. Be this as it may, it is a 
fact that when Ailie was awakened on the fol- 
lowing morning about daybreak, and told to get 
up, she felt sulky — positively and unmistakably 
sulky! 

We do not say that she looked sulky or acted 
sulkily — far from it ; but she felt sulky, and that 
was a very uncomfortable state of things. We 
dwell a little on this point because we do not 
wish to mislead our young readers into the belief 


THE TKADEE KILLS A CROCODILE. 145 

that life in the wild woods is all delightful to- 
gether. There are shadows as weU as lights 
there — some of them, alas ! so deep that we 
would not like even to refer to them while writ- 
ing in a sportive vein. 

But it is also a fact, that when Ailie was fairly 
up and once more in the canoe, and when the sun 
began to flood the landscape with his golden light 
and turn the water into liquid fire, her temporary 
feelings of discomfort passed away, and her 
sensation of intense enjoyment returned. 

The scenery through which they passed on the 
second day was somewhat varied. They emerged 
early in the day upon the bosom of a large lake 
which looked almost like the ocean. Here there 
were immense flocks of waterfowl, and among 
them that strange ungainly bird, the pelican. 
Here, too, there were actually hundreds of croco- 
diles. The lake was full of little mud islands, 
and on all of them these hideous and gigantic 
reptiles were seen basking lazily in the sun. 

Several shots were fired at them, but although 
the balls hit, they did not penetrate their thick 
hides, until at last one took effect in the soft part 
close behind the fore-leg. The shot was fired by 
the trader, and it killed the animal instantly. It 
could not have been less thart twenty feet long, 
but before they could secure it the carcase sank 
in deep water. 


18 


146 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ What a pity ! ” remarked Glynn, as the eddies 
circled round the spot where it had gone down. 

“ Ah, so it is ! ’’ replied the doctor ; “ but he would 
have been rather large to preserve and carry home 
as a specimen.” 

“ I ax yer parding, sir,” said Tim Rokens, ad- 
dressing Dr. Hopley ; but I’m curious to know 
if crocodiles has got phrenoligy ? ” 

“ No doubt of it,” replied the doctor, laughing, 
“ Crocodiles have brains, and brains when exer- 
cised must be enlarged and developed, especially 
in the organs that are most used, hence corre- 
sponding development must take place in the 
skull.” 

“ I should think, doctor,” remarked the captain, 
who was somewhat sceptical, “ that their bumps 
of combativeness must be very large.” 

“ Probably they are,” continued the doctor ; 
“ something like my friend Phil Briant here. I 
would venture to guess, now, that his organ of 
combativeness is well developed — let me see.” 

The doctor, who sat close beside the Mshman, 
caused him to pull in his paddle and submit his 
head for inspection. 

“ Ah ! then, don’t operate on me, doctor dear ! 
I’ve a mortial fear o’ operation iver since me owld 
grandmother’s pi^ got its fore-leg took off at the 
hip-jint.” 

“ Hold your tongue, Paddy. Now the bump 


PHRENOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS INTERRUPTED. 147 

lies here — just under — eh! why, you haven’t 
got so much as — what!” 

“ Plaze, I think it’s lost in fat, sur,” remarked 
Briant, in a plaintive tone, as if he expected to 
be reprimanded for not having brought his bump 
of combativeness along with him. 

“ Well,” resumed the doctor, passing his fingers 
through Briant’s matted locks, “ I suppose you’re 
not so combative as we had fancied ” 

“ Thrue for ye,” interrupted Phil. 

“ But, strange enough, I find your organ of 
veneration is very large, very large, indeed ; sin- 
gularly so for a man of your character * but I 
cannot feel it easily, you have such d quantity 
of hair.” 

“ Which is it, doctor dear ? ” inquired Phil. 

“ This one I am pressing now.” 

“ Arrah ! don’t press so hard, plaze, it’s hurtin’ 
me ye are. Shure that’s the place where I run 
me head slap up agin the spanker-boom four days 
ago. Av thafs me bump o’ vineration, it was 
three times as big an’ twice as hard yisterday — 
it wos, indade.” 

Interruptions in this world of uncertainty are 
not uncommon, and in the African wilds they are 
peculiarly frequent. The interruption which oc- 
curred on the present occasion to Dr. Hopley’s 
reply was, we need scarcely remark, exceedingly 
opportune. It came in the form of a hippopota- 
mus, which rose so close to the boat that Ailie 


148 ^ 


THE RED ERIC. 


got a severe start, and Tim Rokens made a blow 
at its head with his paddle. It did not seem to 
notice the boat, but after blowing a quantity of 
water from its nostrils, and opening its horrible 
mouth as if ii were yawning, it slowly sank 
again into the flood. 

“ Wot an ’orrible crittur ! ’’ exclaimed Jim 
Scroggles, in amazement at the sight. 

“ The howdacious wiUain ! ” remarked Rokens. 

“ Is that another on ahead?” said Glynn, point- 
ing to an object floating on the water about a hun- 
dred yards up the river ; for they had passed the 
lake, and were now ascending another stream. 
“ D’ye see it, Ailie ? Look ! ” 

The object sank as he spoke, and Ailie looked 
round just in time to see the tail of a crocodile flop 
the water and follow its owner to the depths below. 

“ Oh ! oh ! ” exclaimed Ailie, with one of those 
peculiar intonations that told Glynn she saw 
something very beautiful, and that induced the 
remainder of the crew to rest on their paddles, 
and turn their eyes in the direction indicated. 

They did not require to ask what she saw, for 
the child’s finger directed their eyes to a spot on 
the bank of the river, where, under the shadow of 
a spreading bush with gigantic leaves, stood a 
lovely little gazelle. The graceful creature had 
trotted down to the stream to drink, and did not 
observe the canoe which had been on the point 
of rounding a bank that jutted out into the rivei 


SAD FATE OF A GAZELLE. 


149 


where its progress was checked. The gazelle 
paused a moment, looked round to sgitisfy itself 
that no enemy was near, and then put its lips to 
the water. 

Alas ! for the timid little thing ! There were 
enemies near it and round it in all directions. 
There were leopards and serpents of the largest 
size in the woods, and man upon the river, — al- 
though on this occasion, it chanced that most of 
the men who gazed in admiration at its pretty form 
were Mends. But its worst enemy, a crocodile, 
was lurking close under the mud-bank at its feet. 

Scarcely had its parched lips reached the stream 
when a black snout darted from the water, and 
the next instant, the gazelle was struggling in the 
crocodile’s jaws. A cry of horror burst from the 
men in the boat, and every man seized a musket ; 
but before an aim could be taken, the struggle was 
over ; the^ monster had dived with his prey, and 
nothing but a few streaks of red foam floated on 
the troubled water. 

Ailie did not move. She stood with her hands 
tightly clasped, and her eyes starting almost out 
of their sockets. At last her feelings found vent. 
She threw her arms round her father’s neck, and 
burying her face in his bosom, burst into a pas- 
eionate flood of tears. 


18 * 


160 


THE RED ERIC. 


% 

CHAPTEE XI. 

Native Doings, and a cruel Murder. — Jim Scroggles sees TV ondei^ 
and has a terrible Adventure. 

It took two whole days and nights to restore 
Ailie to her wonted cheerful state of mind, after 
she had witnessed the death of the gazelle. But 
although she sang and laughed, and enjoyed her- 
self as much as ever, she experienced the presence 
of a new and strange feeling, that, ever after that 
day, tinged her thoughts, and influenced her words 
and actions. 

The child had for the first time in her life ex- 
perienced one of those rude shocks — one of those 
rough contacts with the stern realities of life which 
tend to deepen and intensify our feelmgs. The 
mind does not always grow by slow, inlpercepti- 
ble degrees, although it usually does so. There 
are periods in th^career of every one when the 
mind takes, as it were a sharp run, and makes a 
sudden and stupendous jump out of one region 
of thought into another in which there are things 
new as well as old. 

The present was such an occasion to little 
Ailie Dunning. She had indeed seen bloody 
work before, in the cutting up of a whale. But 
although she had been told it often enough, she 


ailie’s deep impressions. 


151 


did not realize that whales have feelings and 
affections like other creatures. Besides, she had 
not witnessed the actual killing of the whale; 
and if she had, it would probably have made 
little impression on her beyond that of temporary 
excitement — not even that, perhaps, had her 
father been by her side. But she sympathized 
with the gazelle. It was small, and beautiful, 
and lovable. Her heart had swelled the mo- 
ment she saw it, and she had felt a longing desire 
to run up to it and throw her arms round its soft 
neck, so that, when she saw it suddenly strug- 
gling and crushed in the tremendous jaws of the 
horrible crocodile, every tender feeling in her 
breast was lacerated ; every fibre of her heart 
trembled with a conflicting gush of the tenderest 
pity and the fiercest rage. From that day for- 
ward new thoughts began to occupy her mind, 
and old ideas presented themselves in different 
aspects. 

We would not have the reader suppose, for a 
moment, that Ailie became an utterly changed 
creature. To an unobservant eye — such as that 
of Jim Scroggles, for instance — she was the 
same in all respects a few days after as she had 
been a few hours before the event. But new 
elements had been implanted in her breast, or 
rather, seeds which had hitherto lain dormant 
were now caused to burst forth into plants by 
the all-wise Author of her being. She now feU 


152 


THE' RED ERIC. 


for the first time — she could not tell why — that 
enjoyment was not the chief good in life. 

Of course she did not argue or think out all 
this clearly and methodically to herself. Her 
mind, on most things, material as well as imma- 
terial, was very much what may be termed a 
jumble ; but undoubtedly the above processes of 
reasoning, and feeling, or something like them, 
were the result to Ailie of the violent death of 
that little gazelle. 

The very next day after this sad event the trav- 
ellers came to a native village, at which they 
stayed a night, in order to rest and procure fresh 
provisions. The trader was well known at this vil- 
lage, but the natives, all of whom were black, of 
course, and nearly naked, had never seen a little 
white girl before, so that their interest in and 
wonder at Ailie were quite amusing to witness. 
They crowded round her, laughing and exclaiming 
and gesticulating in a most remarkable manner, 
and taking special notice of her light-brown glossy 
hair, which seemed to fill them with , unbounded 
astonishment and admiration ; as well it might, 
for they never before had seen any other hair ex- 
cept the coarse curly wool on their own pates, 
and the long lank hair of the trader, which hap- 
pened to be coarse and black. 

The child was at first annoyed by the attentions 
paid her, but at last she became interested in the 
sooty little naked children that thronged round 


FEROCITY OF TIM ROKENS. 


153 


her, and allowed them to handle her as much as 
they pleased, until her father led her to the resi- 
dence of the chief or king of the tribe. Here she 
was well treated, and she began quite to like the 
people who were so kind to her and her friends. 
But she chanced to overhear a conversation be- 
tween the doctor and Tim Rokens, which caused 
her afterwards to shrink from the negroes with 
horror. 

She was sitting on a bank picking wild flowers 
some hours after the arrival of her party, and 
teaching several black children how to make 
necklaces of them, when the doctor and Rokens 
happened to sit down together at the other side 
of a bush which concealed her from their view. 
Tim was evidently excited, for the tones of his 
voice were loud and emphatic. 

“ Yes,” he said, in reply to some question put to 
him by the doctor ; “ yes, I seed ’em do it, not ten 
minutes agone, with my own two eyes. Oh ! but 
I would like to have ’em up in a row — every black 
villain in the place — an’ a cutlass in my hand, an’ 
— an’ wouldn’t I whip off their heads ? No, I 
wouldn’t ; oh, no, by no means wotiver.” 

There was something unusually fierce in Ro- 
kens’ voice that alarmed Ailie. 

“ I wos jist takin’ a turn,” continued the sailor, 
‘‘down by the creek yonder, when I heerd a great 
yellin’ goin’ on, and saw the trader in the middle 
of a crowd o’ black -fellows, a-shakin’ his fiats ; so I 


154 


THE RED ERIC. 


made sail, of course, to lend a hand if he'd got into 
trouble. He was scoldin’ away in the native lin- 
go, as if he’d been a born nigger. 

“ ‘ Wot’s all to do ? ’ says I. 

“ ‘ They’re goin’ to kill a little boy,’ says he, 
quite fierce like, ‘ ’cause they took it into their 
heads he’s betwitched.’ 

“ An’ sayin’ that, he sot to agin in the othei 
lingo, but the king came up an’ told him that the 
boy had to be killed ’cause he had a devil in him, 
and had gone and betwitched a number o’ other 
people ; an’ before he had done speakin’, up comes 
two fellers, draggin’ the poor little boy between 
them. The king axed him if he wos betwitched, 
and the little chap — from sheer fright, I do believe 
— said he was. Of coorse I couldn’t understand 
’em, but the trader explained it all arter. Well, no 
sooner had he said that, than they all gave a yell, 
and rushed upon the poor boy with their knives, 
and cut him to pieces. It’s as sure as I’m sittin’ 
here,” cried Ilokens, savagely, as his wrath rose 
again at the bare recital of the terrible deed he had 
witnessed. “ I would ha’ knocked out the king’s 
brains then and there, but the trader caught my 
hand, and said, in a great fright, that if I did, it 
would not only cost me my life, but likely the 
whole party ; so that cooled me, and I come 
away; an’ I’m goin’ to ax the captin wot we 
should do.” 

“We can do nothing,” said the doctor, sadly 


INDIGNATION OF TIM ROKENS. 


155 


** Even suppose we were strong enough to pun- 
ish them, what good would it do ? We can’t 
change their natures. They are superstitious, 
and are firmly persuaded they did right in kill- 
ing that poor boy.” 

The doctor pondered for a few seconds, and 
then added, in a low voice, as if he were weigh- 
ing the meaning of what he said, “ Clergymen 
would tell us that nothing can deliver them from 
this bondage save a knowledge of the true God 
and of His Son Jesus Christ ; that the Bible 
might be the means of curing them, if Bibles 
were only sent, and ministers to preach the 
gospel.” 

“Then why ain’t Bibles sent to ’em at once?” 
asked Rokens, in a tone of great indignation, 
supposing that the doctor was expressing his 
own opinion on the subject. “ Is there nobody 
to look arter these matters in Christian lands?” 

“ Oh, yes, there are many Bible Societies, 
and both Bibles and missionaries have been 
sent to this country ; but it’s a large one, and 
the societies teU us that their funds are Hmifed.” 

“ Then why don’t they git more funds ? ” con- 
tinued Rokens, in the same indignant tone, as 
his mind still dwelt upon the miseries and wick- 
edness that he had seen, and that might be pre- 
vented ; “ why don’t they git more funds, and 
send out heaps o’ Bibles, an’ no end o’ mission- 
aries ? ” 


156 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Tim Rokens,’’ said the doctor, looking ear- 
nestly into his companion’s face, if I were one 
of the missionaries, I might ask you how much 
money you ever gave to enable societies to send 
Bibles and missionaries to foreign lands ? ” 

Tim Rokens was for once in his life com- 
pletely taken aback. He was by nature a stolid 
man, and not easily put out. He was a shrewd 
man, too, and did not often commit himself 
When he did, he was wont to laugh at himself, 
and so neutralize the laugh raised against him. 
But here was a question that was too serious 
for laughter, and yet one which he could not 
answer without being self-condemned. He 
looked gravely in the doctor’s face for two min- 
utes without speaking ; then he heaved a deep 
sigh, and said slowly, and with a pause between 
each word : 

“ Doctor Hopley — I — never — gave — a rap — 
in — all — my — life.” 

“ So, then, my man,” said the doctor, smiling, 
“ you’re scarcely entitled to be indignant with 
others.” 

“ Wot you remark, doctor, is true ; I — am — 
not.” 

Having thus fuUy and emphatically condemned 
himself, and along with himself all mankind who 
are in a similar category, Tim Rokens relapsed 
into silence, deliberately drew forth his pipe 
filled it, lit it, and began to smoke. 


STRANGE AND DREADFUL CREATURES. 157 


None of the party of travellers slept well that 
night, except perhaps the trader, who was accus- 
tomed to the ways of the negroes, and King 
Bumble, who had been born and bred in the 
midst of cruelty. Most of them dreamed of 
savage orgies, and massacres of innocent chil- 
dren, so that when daybreak summoned them to 
resume their journey, they arose and embarked 
with alacrity, glad to get away from the spot. 

During that day and the next they saw a great 
number of crocodiles and hippopotami, besides 
strange birds and plants innumerable. The doc- 
tor filled his botanical-box to bursting. Ailie 
filled her flower-basket to overflowing. Glynn 
hit a crocodile on the back with a bullet, and 
received a lazy stare from the ugly creature in 
return, as it waddled slowly down the bank on 
which it had been lying, and plumped into the 
river. The captain assisted Ailie to pluck flow- 
ers when they landed, which they did from time 
to time, and helped to arrange and pack them 
when they returned to the canoe. Tim Rokens 
did nothing particularly worthy of record ; but 
he gave utterance to an immense number of sen- 
tentious and wise remarks, which were listened 
to by Bumble with deep respect, for that sable 
gentleman had taken a great fancy for the bold 
harpooner, and treasured up all his sayings in his 
heart. 

Phil Briant distinguished himself by shooting 
14 


158 


THE KED ERIC. 


an immense serpent, which the doctor, who cut 
off and retained its head, pronounced to be an 
anaconda. It was full twenty feet long, and 
part of the body was cut up, roasted, and eaten 
by Bumble and the trader, though the others 
turned from it with loathing. 

“ It be more cleaner dan one pig, anyhow,’* 
remarked Bumble, on observing the disgust of 
his white friends ; “ an’ you no objic’ to eat dat.” 

“ Clainer than a pig, ye spalpeen I ” cried Phil 
Briant ; “ that only shows yer benighted haithen 
ignorance. Sure I lived in the same cabin wid 
a pig for many a year — not to mintion a large 
family o’ cocks and hens — an’ a clainer baste 
than that pig didn’t stop in that cabin.” 

“ That doesn’t say much for your own clean- 
liness, or that of your family,” remarked Glynn. 

“ Och ! ye’ve bin to school, no doubt haven’t 
ye ? ” retorted Phil. 

“ I have,” replied Glynn. 

“ Shure I thought so. It’s there ye must have 
lerned to be so oncommon diver. Don’t you 
iver be persuaded for to go to school. Bumble, 
if ye iver get the chance. It’s a mighty lot 
o’ taichin’ they’d give ye, but niver a taste o’ 
edication. Tin to wan, they’d cram ye tiU ye 
turned white i’ the face, an’ that wouldn’t suit 
yer complexion, ye know. King Bumble, by no 
manes.” 

As for the trader, he acted interpreter when 


JIM SCROGGLES’ ADVENTURE. 


159 


the party fell in with negroes, and explained 
every thing that puzzled them, and told them 
anecdotes without end about the natives and 
the wild creatures, and the traffic of the regions 
which they passed. In short, he made himself 
generally useful and agreeable. 

But the man who distinguished himself most 
on that trip was Jim Scroggles. That lanky 
individual one day took it into his wise head to 
go off on a short ramble into the woods alone. 
He had been warned by the trader, along with 
the rest of the party, not to venture on such a 
dangerous thing ; but being an absent man, the 
warning had not reached his intellect although it 
had fallen on his ear. The party were on shore 
cooking dinner when he went off, without arms 
of any kind, and without telling whither he was 
bound. Indeed, he had no defined intentions in 
his own mind. He merely felt inclined for a 
ramble, and so went away, intending to be back 
in half an hour or less. 

But Jim Scroggles had long legs and loved 
locomotion. Moreover, the woods were exceed- 
ingly beautiful and fragrant, and comparatively 
cool ; for it happened to be the coolest season of 
the year in that sultry region, else the party of 
Europeans could not have ventured to travel 
there at aU. 

Wandering along beneath the shade of palm- 
trees and Jarge-leaved shrubs and other tropical 


160 


THE RED ERIC. 


productions, with his hands in his breeches pock- 
ets, and whistling a variety of popular airs, which 
must have not a little astonished the monkeys 
and birds and other creatures — such of them, 
at least, as had any taste for or knowledge of 
music — Jim Scroggles penetrated much further 
into the wilds than he had any intention of 
doing. There is no saying how far, in his ab- 
sence of mind, he might have wandered, had he 
not been caught and very uncomfortably entan- 
gled in a mesh-work of wild vines and thorny 
plants that barred his further progress. 

Jim had encountered several such befjre in 
his walk, but had forced his way through with- 
out more serious damage than a rent or two in 
his shirt and pantaloons, and several severe 
scratches to his hands and face ; but Scroggles 
had lived a hard life from infancy, and did not 
mind scratches. Now, however, he could not 
advance a step, and it was only by much patient 
labor and by the free use of his clasp-knife, that 
he succeeded at length in releasing himself. He 
left a large portion of one of the legs of his 
trousers and several bits of skin on the bushes, 
as a memorial of his visit to that spot. 

Jim’s mind was awoke to the perception of 
three facts — namely, that he had made himself 
late for dinner ; that he would be the means of 
detaining his party; and that he had lost himself 

Here was a pretty business ! Being a man of 


JIM SCEOGGLES’ ADVENTUEE. 


161 


slow thought and much deliberation, he sat down 
on the trunk of a fallen tree and looking up, as 
men usually do when soliloquizing, exclaimed, 

“ My eye, here’s a go I Wot is to be done ? ” 
A very small monkey, with an uncommonly 
wrinkled and melancholy cast of visage, which 
chanced to be seated on a branch hard by, peer- 
ing down at the lost mariner, replied : 

“ O ! 0-0-0, O ! o — o ! ” as much as to say, 
“ Ah ! my boy, that’s just the question.” 

Jim Scroggles shook his head, partly as a rebuke 
to the impertinent little monkey and partly as an 
indication of the hopelessness of his being able to 
return a satisfactory answer to his own question. 

At last he started up, exclaiming, Wotevei 
comes on it, there’s no use o’ sitting here,” and 
walked straight forward at a brisk pace. Then he 
suddenly stopped, shook his head again, and said, 
“ If I goes on like this, an’ it shud turn out to be 
the wrong course arter all — wot’U come on’t? ” 
Being as unable to answer this question as the 
former, he thrust both hands into his pockets, 
looked at the ground, and began to whistle. When 
he looked up again he ceased whistling very ab- 
ruptly, and turned deadly pale — perhaps we should 
say, yellow. And no wonder, for there, straight 
before him, not more than twenty yards off, stood 
a creature which, to his ignorant eyes, appeared 
to be a fiend incarnate, but which was in reality 
a large-sized and very ancient sheego monkey. 

14 * 


162 


THE RED ERIC. 


It stood in an upright position like a man, and 
was above four feet high. It had a bald head, gray 
whiskers, and an intensely black wrinkled face, 
and, at the moment Jim Scroggles’ eyes encoun- 
tered it, that face was working itself into such a 
variety of remarkable and hideous contortions that 
no description, however graphic, could convey a 
correct notion of it to the reader’s mind. Seen 
behind the bars of an iron cage it might, perhaps, 
have been laughable ; but witnessed as it was, 
in the depths of a lonely forest, it was appalling. 

Jim Scroggles’ knees began to shake. He was 
fascinated with horror. The huge ape was equally 
fascinated with terror. It worked its wrinkled 
visage more violently than ever. Jim trembled 
all over. In another second the sheego displayed 
not only all its teeth — and they were tremen- 
dous — but all its gums, and they were fearful to 
behold, besides being scarlet. Roused to the ut- 
most pitch of fear, the sheego uttered a shriek 
that rang through the forest like a death-yell. 
This was the culminating point. Jim Scroggles 
turned and fled as fast as his long and trembling 
legs could carry him. 

The sheego, at the same instant, was smitten 
with an identically similar impulse. It turned, 
uttered another yell and fled in the opposite di- 
rection ; and thus the two ran until they were 
both out of breath. What became of the mon- 
key we cannot tell ; but Jim Scroggles ran at 


JIM SCROGGLES’ ADVENTURE,. 163 

headlong speed straight before him, crashing 
through brake and bush, in the full belief that the 
sheego was in hot pursuit, until he came to a 
mangrove swamp ; here his speed was checked 
somewhat, for the trees grew in a curious fashion 
that merits special notice. 

Instead of rising out of the ground, the man- 
groves rose out of a sea of mud, and the roots 
stood up in a somewhat arched form, supporting 
their stem, as it were, on the top of a bridge. 
Thus, had the ground beneath been solid, a man 
might have walked under the roots. In order to 
cross the swamp, Jim Scroggles had to leap from 
root to root — a feat which, although difficult, he 
would have attempted without hesitation. But 
Jim was agitated at that particular moment. His 
step was uncertain at a time when the utmost 
coolness was necessary. At one point, the leap 
from one root to the next was too great for him. 
He turned his eye quickly to one side to seek a 
nearer stem ; in doing so he encountered the gaze 
of a serpent. It was not a large one, probably 
about ten feet long, but he knew it to be one 
whose bite was deadly. In the surprise and fear 
of the moment, he took the long leap, came short 
of the root by about six inches, and alighted up 
to the waist in the soft mud. 

Almost involuntarily he cast his eyes behind 
him, and saw neither sheego nor serpent. He 
breathed more freely, and assayed to extricate 


164 


THE EKIC; \ 

himself from his unpleasant position. Stretching 
out his hands to the root abo^ce his head, he found 
that it was beyond his reach. The sudden fear 
that this produced, caused him to make a violent 
struggle, and in his next effort, he succeeded in 
catching a twig ; it supported him for a moment, 
then broke, and he fell back again into the mud. 
Each successive struggle only sank him deeper. 
As the thick adhesive semi-liquid clung to his 
lower limbs and rose slowly on his chest, the 
wretched man uttered a loud cry of despair. He 
felt that he was brought suddenly face to face 
with death in its most awful form. The mud 
was soon up to his arm-pits. As the hopeless- 
ness of his condition forced itself upon him, he 
began to shout for help until the dark woods re- 
sounded with his cries ; but no help came, and 
the cold drops of sweat stood upon his brow as 
he shrieked aloud in agony, and prayed for mercy. 


CH 


Jim Scroggles rescued, 

Upset, Chase, 

The merciful rnanne. 
liverance at the eleventh l 
experienced and recognized, ti. 
the well-known proverb, “ Man 
God’s opportunity ; ” and this proverb . 
only in reference to man’s soul, but often, 
in regard to his temporal affairs. 

While the wretched sailor was uttering cries 
for help, which grew feebler every moment as he 
sank deeper and deeper into what now he believed 
should be his grave, his comrades were hastening 
forward to his rescue. 

Alarmed at his prolonged absence, they had 
armed themselves, and set out in search of him, 
headed by the trader and led by the negro, who 
tracked his steps with that unerring certainty 
which seems peculiar to all savages. The shrieks 
uttered by their poor comrade soon reached their 
ears, and after some little difficulty, owing to the 
cries becoming faint and at last inaudible, they 
discovered the swamp where he lay, and revived 
his hope and energy by their shouts. They found 
him nearly up to the neck in mud, and the little 


oo\e ground, was 


•J with the aid of 
out of their gar- 
^rilous position and 
and after they had 
^nore than an hour to 
recruited sufficiently to 
^ne spot where they had left 

inan was deeply moved ; and when 
j realized the fact that he was saved, he 
cpt like a child, and then thanked God fervently 
for his deliverance. As the night was approach- 
ing, and the canoe, with Ailie in it, had been left 
in charge only of Glynn Proctor, Jim’s recovery 
was expedited as much as possible, and as spon 
as he could walk, they turned to retrace their 
steps. 

Man knows not what a day or an hour will 
bring forth. For many years one may be per- 
mitted to move on “ the even tenor of his way,” 
without any thing of momentous import occur- 
ring to mark the passage of his little span of time 
as it sweeps him onward to eternity. At another 
period of life, events, it may be of the most start- 
ling and abidingly impressive nature, are crowded 
into a few months, or weeks, or even days. So 
t was now with our travellers on the African 
river. When they reached the spot where they 


A TERRIBLE DISCOVERY. m 

t 

had dined, no one replied to their shoutf Tje 
canoe, Glynn, and the child were gone. 

On making this terrible discovery, the hole 
party were filled with indescribable consternation, 
and ran wildly hither and thither, up and down 
the banks of the river, shouting the ^ijames of 
Glynn Proctor, and Ailie, until the woods rang 
again. Captain Dunning was almost mad with 
anxiety and horror. His ' naemation pictured 
his child in every con i v a! ‘ nger. He thought 
other as drowned h the river, and devoured by 
crocodiles ; as *iTie(i away by the natives into 
hopeless ( ptivity ; or, perhaps, killed by wild 
beasts ir. tne forest. When several hours had 
elapsed and still no sign of the missing ones 
could >e discovered, he fell down exhausted on 
theri v ' l’s bank, and groaned aloud in his despair. 

Bu Ailie was not lost. The Heavenly Father 
in w| oin she trusted, still watched over and cared 
for b-i and Glynn Proctor’s stout right arm was 
still by her side to protect her. 

A)out half an hour after the party had gone off 
in search of their lost companion, a large canoe, 
full d neyroes, came sweeping down the river. 
Glynn and Ailie hid themselves in the bushes, and 
la ; perf ectly still, hoping they might be passed by. 
But they forgot that the blue smoke of their fire 
^erfed tk.-ough the fetliage arid revealed their 
preseii' ■. one 3. On observing the smoke, the 

savages a shout, and, running their canoe 


im 


THE EED EEIC. 


l /^e into the bank, leaped ashore and began to 
aii'per through the woods like baboons. 

a few minutes passed before they disco v- 
ert d the two hiders, whom they smTOunded and 
gazed upon in the utmost possible amazement, 
shouti;vg the while with delight, as if they had 
discovered a couple of new species of monkey. 
Glynn v'3-s by nature a reckless and hasty youth. 
He feii be p^wer of a young giant within him, 
and his lirst impulse was to leap upon the new 
•comers and knock them dow e j^ht and left. For- 
tunately, for Ailie's sake wt i. as his own, he 
had wisdom enough to know th. “ tir ,ugh he had 
possessed the power of ten giants, b; cc ud not 
hope, singly, to overcome twenty n gi ^ et;, all of 
whom were strong, active, and lithe rs p anthers. 
He therefore assumed a good-humoic t-oe-and- 
easy air, and allowed himself and Aili ^ to be 
looked at and handled without ceremo :y.. 

The savages were evidently not ii- deposed 
toward the wanderers. They laughed : great 
deal, and spoke to each other rapidly in ^ hat to 
Glynn, was of course an unknown tong i f One 
who appeared to be the chief of the parry passed 
his long black fingers through Ailie’s glossy curls 
with evident surprise and delight He ihen ad- 
vanced to Glynn, and said somethiru i ' e 

“ Holli - boobo - gaddje -bump-um peer- diddh 
dumps.” 

To which Glynn replied very ^ uiurally, j 
don’t unrh'rstand you.” 


GLYNN AND AILIB CAPTURED. 


169 


Of course he did not. And he might have 
known well enough that the negro could not 
understand hiin. But he deemed it wiser to make 
a reply of some kind, however unintelligible, than 
to stand like a post and say nothing. 

Again the negro spoke, and again Glynn made 
the same reply ; whereupon the black fellow turned 
round to his comrades and looked at them, and 
they, in reply to the look, burst again into an im- 
moderate fit of laughter, and cut a variety of ca- 
pers, the very simplest of which would have made 
the fortune of any merry- Andrew in the civilized 
world, had he been able to execute it. This was 
aU very weU, no doubt, and exceedingly amusing, 
not to say surprising ; but it became quite a dif- 
ferent matter when, after satisfying their curiosity, 
these dark gentlemen coolly collected the pr<? ' 
erty of the white men, stowed it away in the smaj 
canoe, and made signs to Glynn and Ailie 
enter. 

Glynn showed a decided objection to obey, on 
which two stout fellows seized him by the shoul- 
ders, and pointed sternly to the canoe, as much 
as to say, “ Hobbi-doddle-hoogum-toly-whack,” 
which, being interpreted (no doubt) meant, “ If 
you don’t go quietly, we’U force you.” 

Again the young sailor’s spirit leaped up. He 
clenched his fists, his brow flushed crimson, and, 
in another instant, whatever might have been the 
consequence the two negroes would certainly 

15 


170 


THE RED ERIC. 


have lain incumbent on the sward, had it not 
suddenly occurred to Glynn that he might, by 
appearing to submit, win the confidence of his 
captors, and, at the first night-encampment, 
quietly make his escape with Ailie in his arms ! 

Glynn was at that romantic age when young 
men have a tendency to think themselves capable 
of doing almost any thing, with or without ordi- 
nary facilities, and in the face of any amount of ad- 
verse circumstance. He therefore stepped willingly 
and even cheerfully into the canoe, in which his and 
his comrades’ baggage had been already stowed, 
and seating himself in the stern took up the 
steering-paddle. He was ordered to quit that post, 
however, in favor of a powerful negro, and made 
to sit in the bow and paddle there. Ailie was 
nlaoed with great care in the centre of the canoe 
V a heap of soft leopard-skins; for the 

R/dg^'b evidently regarded her as something 
worth preserving — a rare and beautiful speci- 
men, perhaps, of the white monkey ! 

This done, they leaped into their large canoe, 
and, attaching the smaller one to it by means of 
a rope, paddled out from the bank, and descended 
the stream. 

Oh ! Glynn,” exclaimed Ailie, in a whisper — 
for she felt that things were beginning to look 
serious — “ what are we to do ? ” 

“ Indeed, my pet, I don’t know,” :\iplied Glynn 
looking round, and encountering the gaze of th 


THE CAPTIVES. 


171 


negro i r. the stern, at whom he frowned darkly, 
and re^ rdved a savage grin by way of reply. 

“ I wouhi like so much to say something to 
you,” ct itinued Ailie, “but I’m afraid he will 
know "what I say.” 

“ Never fear, Aide ; he’s as deaf as a post 
to our language. Out with it.” 

“ Could you not,” she said, in a half whisper, 
“ cut the rope, and then paddle away back while 
they are paddling down the river ! ” 

Glynn laughed in spite of himself at this pro- 
posal. 

“ And what, my pretty one,” he said, “ what 
should we do with the fellow in the stern ? Be- 
sides, the rascals in front might take it into their 
heads to paddle after us, you know, and what 
then?” 

“ Fm sure I don’t know,” said Ailie, beginning 
to cry. 

“ Now, don’t cry, my darling,” said Glynn, look- 
ing over his shoulder with much concern. “ I’ll 
manage to get you out of this scrape somehow — 
now, see if I don’t.” 

The youth spoke so confidently, that the child 
felt somewhat comforted, so drying her eyes she 
lay back among the leopard skins, where, giving 
vent to an occasional sob, she speedily fell fast 
asleep. 

They continued to advance thus in silence for 
nearly an hour, crossed a small lake, and again 
entered the river. After descending this some 


172 


THE RED ERIO. 


time, the attention of the whole party was at- 
tracted to a group of hippopotami, gr ..d^niling in 
the mud-banks and in the river a short distance 
ahead. At any other time Glynn \ Id have 
been interested in the sight of th 3 uncouth 
monsters, but he had seen so many within the 
last few days that he was becoming compara- 
tively indifferent to them, and at that moment he 
was too much filled with anxiety to take any 
notice of them. The creatures themselves, how- 
ever did not seem to be so utterly indifferent to 
the strangers. They continued their gambols 
until the canoes were quite near, and then they 
dived. Now, hippopatami, as we have before 
hinted, are clumsy and stupid creatures, so much 
so that they occasionally run against and upset 
boats and canoes quite unintentionally. Know- 
ing this, the natives in the large canoe kept a 
sharp look-out in order to steer clear of them. 

They had almost succeeded in passing the 
place, when a huge fellow like a sugar-puncheon, 
rose close to the small canoe, and grazed it with 
his tail. Apparently he considered this an attack 
made upon him by the boat, for he wheeled 
round in a rage, and swam violently toward it. 
The negro and Glynn sprang to their feet on the 
instant, and the former raised his paddle to deal 
the creature a blow on the head. Before he 
could do so, Glynn leaped lightly over Ailie, who 
had just awakened, caught the savage by the 


THE ESCAPE. 


173 


ankles, and tossed him overboard. He fell with 
a heavy splash just in front of the cavernous 
jaws of the hippopotamus ! In fact, he had nar- 
rowly escaped falling head first into the creature’s 
open throat. 

The nearness of the animal at the time was 
probably the means of saving the negro’s life, fo. 
it did not observe where he had vanished to, as 
he sank under its chin, and was pushed by its 
fore-legs right under its body. In its effort to lay 
hold of the negro, the hippopotamus made a par- 
tial dive, and thus passed the small canoe. 
When it again rose to the surface the large ca- 
noe met its eye. At this it rushed, drove its 
hammer-like skuU through the light material of 
which it was made, and then seizing the broken 
ends in its; strong jaws upset the canoe, and be- 
gan to rend it to pieces in its fury. 

Before this occurred, the crew had leaped into 
the water, and were now swimming madly to the 
shore. At the same moment Glynn cut the line 
that fastened the two canoes together, and seizing 
his pad^e, urged his craft up the river as fast as 
possible. But his single arm could not drive it 
with much speed against the stream, and befor 
he had advanced a dozen yards, one of the na- 
tives overtook him and several more followed 
close behind. Glynn allowed the first one to 
come near, and then gave him a tremendous blow 
on the head with the edge of the paddle. 

15 * 


174 


THE RED ERIC. 


The young sailor was not in a gentle frame of 
n:^ind at that time, by any means. The blow 
was given with a will, and would probably have 
fractured the skull of a white man ; but that of 
a negro is proverbially thick. The fellow was 
only stunned, and fell back among his comrades, 
who judiciously considering that such treatment 
was not agreeable and ought not to be courted, 
put about and made for the shore. 

Glynn now kept his canoe well over to the 
left side of the stream while the savages ran 
along the right bank, yelling ferociously and oc- 
casionally attempting to swim toward him, but 
without success. He was somewhat relieved, 
and sent them a shout of defiance, which was 
returned, of course with interest. Still he felt 
that his chance of escape was poor. He was 
becoming exhausted by the constant and violent 
exertion that was necessary in order to make 
head against the stream. The savages knew 
this, and bided their time. 

As he continued to labor slowly up, Glynn 
came to the mouth of a small stream which 
joined the river. He knew not where it might 
lead to, but feeling that he could not hold out 
much longer, he turned into it, without any very 
definite idea as to what he would attempt next. 
The stream was sluggish. He advanced more 
easily, and after a few strokes of the paddle I 
doubled round a point and was hid from the eyes ' 


THE ESCAPE. 


175 


of the negroes, who immediately set up a yell 
and plunged into the river, intending to swim 
over ; but fortunately it was much too rapid in 
the middle, and they were compelled to return, 
We say, fortunately, because, had they succeeded 
in crossing, they would have found Glynn in the 
bushes of the point behind which he had disap- 
peared, in a very exhausted state, though pre- 
pared to fight to the last with all the energy of 
despair. 

As it was, he had the extreme satisfaction of 
seeing his enemies, after regaining the right bank, 
set off at a quick run down the river. He now 
remembered having seen a place about two miles 
further down that looked like a ford, and he at 
once concluded his pursuers had set off to that 
point, and would speedily return and easily 
recapture him in the narrow little stream into 
which he had pushed. To cross the large river 
was impossible — the canoe would have been 
swamped in the rapid. But what was to hinder 
him from paddling close in along the side, and 
perhaps reach the lake while the negroes were 
looking for him up the small stream ? 

He put this plan in execution at once ; and 
Ailie took a paddle in her small hands and did her 
utmost to help him. It wasn’t much, poor thing ; 
but to hear the way in which Glynn encouraged 
her and spoke of her efforts, one would have sup- 
posed she had been as useful as a full-grown man ’ 


176 


THE RED ERIC. 


After a couple of hours’ hard work, they emerged 
upon the lake, and here Glynn felt that he was 
pretty safe, because, in the still water, no man 
could swim nearly as fast as he could paddle 
Besides, it was now getting dark, so he pushed out 
toward a rocky islet on which there were only a 
few small bushes, resolved to take a short rest 
there, and then continue his flight under cover ol 
the darkness. 

While Glynn carried ashore some biscuit, 
which was the only thing in the boat they could 
eat without cooking, Ailie broke off some 
branches from the low bushes that covered the 
little rocky islet, and spread them out on a flat 
rock for a couch ; this done, she stood on the 
top of a large stone and gazed round upon the 
calm surface of the beautiful lake, in the dark 
depths of which the stars twinkled as if there 
were another sky down there. 

“ Now, Ailie,” said Glynn, “ come along and 
ha,ve Supper. Its not a very tempting one, but 
we must content ourselves with hard fare and a 
hard bed to-night, as I dare not light a fire lest the 
negroes should observe it and catch us.” 

“ I’m sorry for that,” replied the child ; “ for a 
fire is so nice and cheery ; and it helps to keep 
off the wild beasts, too, doesn’t it ? ” 

“ Well, it does ; but there are no wild beasts 
on such a small rock as this, and the sides are 
Sickily too steep for crocodiles to crawl up.” 


THE ESCAPE. 


177 


“ Shall we sleep here tiU morning ? ” asked 
Ailie, munching her hard biscuit and drinking her 
tin panikinful of cold water with great relish, for 
she was very hungry. 

“ Oh, no ! ” replied Glynn. “We must be up 
and away in an hour at furthest. So, as I see 
you’re about done with your luxurious supper, I 
propose that you lie down to rest.” ^ 

Aihe was only too glad to accede to this pro- 
posal. She lay down on the branches, and after 
Glynn had covered her with a blanket, he stretched 
himself on a leopard skin beside her, and both of 
them fell asleep in five minutes. The mosqui- 
toes were very savage that night, but the sleepers 
were too much fatigued to mind their vicious 
attacks. 

Glynn slept two hours, and then he wakened 
with a start, as most persons do when they have 
arranged, before going to sleep, to rise at a certain 
hour. He rose softly, carried the provisions back 
to the canoe, and in his sleepy condition almost 
stepped upon the head of a huge crocodile, 
which, ignorant of their presence, had landed its 
head on the islet in order to have a snooze. Then 
he roused Ailie, and led her, more than haK 
asleep, down to the beach, and lifted her into the 
canoe, after which he pushed off, and paddled 
briskly over the still waters of the star-lit lake. 
Ailie merely yawned during aU these proceed- 
ings; said, “Dear me! is it time to — yeaow! 


178 


THE RED ERIC. 


oh, I’m SO sleepy ; ” mumbled something about 
papa wondering what had become of Jim Scrog- 
gles, and about her being convinced that — 
“ yeaow ! — the ship must have lost itself among 
the whales and monkeys ; ” and then, dropping 
her head on the leopard-skins with a deep sigh oi 
comfort, she returned to the land of Nod. 

Glynn Proctor worked so well that it was still 
early in the morning and quite dark when he ar- 
rived at the encampment where they had been 
made prisoners. His heart beat audibly as he 
approached the dark landing-place, and observed 
no sign of his comrades. The moment the bow 
of the canoe touched the shore, he sprang ovei 
the side, and, without disturbing the little sleeper, 
drew it gently up the bank, and fastened the 
bow-rope to a tree ; then he hurried to the spot 
where they had slept and found all the fires out 
except one, of which a few dull embers stiU re- 
mained ; but no comrade was visible. 

It is a felicitous arrangement of our organs of 
sense, that where one organ fails to convey to 
our inward man information regarding the out- 
ward world, another often steps in to supply its 
place, and perform the needful duty. We have 
said that Glynn Proctor saw nothing of his com- 
rades, — although he gazed earnestly all round 
the camp — for the very good reason that it was 
almost pitch dark; but although his eyes were 
useless, his ears were uncommonly acute, and 


RETURN TO THE CAMP. 


179 


through iheir instrumentality he became cogni- 
zant of a sound. It might have been distant 
thunder, but was too continuous and regular for 
that. It might have been the distant rumbling 
of heavy wagons or artillery over a paved road ; 
but there were neither wagons nor roads in those 
African wilds. It might have been the prolonged 
choking of an alligator — it might, in fact, have 
been (my thing in a region like that, where every 
things almost, was curious, and new, and strange, 
and wild, and unaccountable ; and the listener 
was beginning to entertain the most uncomforta- 
ble ideas of what it probably was, when a gasp 
and a peculiar snort apprised him that it was a 
human snore ! — at least, if not a human snore, 
it was that of some living creature which indulged 
to a very extravagant degTee in that curious and 
altogether objectionable practice. 

Stepping cautiously forward on tip-toe, Glynn 
searched among the leaves all round the fire, fol- 
lowing the direction of the sounds, but nothing 
was to be found ; and he experienced a slight 
feeling of supernatural dread creeping over him, 
when a peculiarly loud metallic snore sounded 
clear above his head. Looking up, he beheld by 
the dull red light of the almost extinct fire, the 
form of Phil Briant, half-seated, half-rechning, on 
the branch of a tree not ten feet from the ground, 
and clasping another branch tightly with both 
arms. 


180 


THE BED ERIC. 


At that moment, Ailie, who had awakened 
ran up, and caught Glynn by the hand. 

“ Hallo ! Briant ! ” exclaimed Glynn. 

A very loud snore was the reply. 

“ Briant ! Phil Briant, I say ; hallo ! Phil ! ” 
shouted Glynn. 

“ Arrah ! howld your noise, will ye,” muttered 
the still sleeping man — sno-o-o-o-re ! ” 

“ A fall ! a fall ! — all hands ahoy ! tumble 
up there, tumble up!” shouted Glynn, in the 
nautical tones which he well knew would have 
their effect upon his comrade. 

He was right. They had more than their usual 
effect on him. The instant he heard them, Phil 
Briant shouted — “ Ay, ay, sir ! ” and throwing his 
legs over the side of what he supposed to be his 
hammock, he came down bodily on what he sup- 
posed to be the deck, with a whack that caused 
him to utter an involuntary but tremendous howl. 

“ Oh ! och ! oh ! murther ! oh whirra ! ” he cried^ 
as he lay half stunned. “ Oh, it’s kilt I am entirely 
— dead as mutton at last, an’ no mistake. Sure 
I might have knowd it — och ! worse luck ? Didn’t 
yer poor owld moliier tell ye, Phil, that ye’d come 
to a bad end — she did ” 

“ Are ye badly hurt ? ” said Glynn, stooping 
over his friend in real alarm. 

At the sound of his voice, Briant ceased his 
wails, rose into a sitting posture, shaded his eyes 
with his hand (a most unnecessary proceeding 
under the circumstances), and stared at him. 


RETUKN TO THE CAMP. 


181 


“ It’s me, Phil ; all right, and Ailie. We’ve 
es<?aped, and got safe back again.” 

“ It’s jokin’ ye are,” said Briant, with the im- 
becile smile of a man who only half believes what 
he actually sees. “ I’m draimin’, that’s it. Go 
away, avic, an’ don’t be botherin’ me.” 

“ It’s quite true, though, I assure you, my boy. 
I've managed to give the niggers the slip ; and 
here’s Ailie, too, all safe, and ready to convince 
you of the fact.” 

Phil Briant looked at. one and then at the other 
U unbounded amazement for a few seconds, after 
which he gave a short laugh as if of pity for his 
o vn weakness, and his face resumed a mild aspect 
ai he said softly, “ It’s all a draim, av’ coorse it 
is! ” He even turned away his eyes for a moment 
ir order to give the vision time to dissipate. But 
on looking round again, there it was, as palpable 
as ever. Faith in the fidelity of his own eyesight 
eturned in a moment, and Phil Briant, forgetting 
nis bodily pains, sprang to his feet with a roar of 
joy, seized Ailie in his arms and kissed her, em- 
braced Glynn Proctor with a squeeze like to that 
of a loving bear, and then began to dance an Irish 
jig, quite regardless of the fact that the greater 
part of it was performed in the fire, the embers of 
which he sent flying in all directions like a display 
of fireworks. He cheered, too, now and then, like 
a maniac, — 

“ Oh, happy day ! I’ve found ye, have I ? after 
16 


\ 


182 


THE RED ERIC. 


all me trouble, too ! Hooray ! an’ wan chair more 
for luck. Av me sowl only don’t lape clane out 
o’ me body, it’s meself ’U be thankful I But, sure 
— I’m forgittin’ ” 

Briant paused suddenly in the midst of his up- 
roarious dance, and seized a burning stick, which 
he attempted to blow into a flame with intense 
vehemence of action. Having succeeded, he darted 
toward an open space a few yards off, in the cen- 
tre of which lay a large pile of dry sticks. To 
these he applied the lighted brand, and the next 
instant a glare of ruddy flame leaped upward, 
and sent a shower of sparks high above the forest 
trees into the sky. He then returned, panting a 
good deal, but much composed, and said — 

“ Now, darlints, come an’ help me to gather the 
bits o’ stick ; somebody’s bin scatterin’ them all 
over the place, they have, bad luck to them ! an’ 
then ye’ll sit down and talk a bit, an’ tell me all 
about it.” 

“ But what’s the fire for ? ” asked Aflie. 

“ Ay, ye may say that,” added Glynn ; we don’t 
need such a huge bonfire as that to cook our sup- 
per with. 

“ Och ! be aisy, do. It’ll do its work ; small 
doubt o’ that The cap’n, poor man, ye know, is 
a’most deranged, an’ they’re every one of them 
off* at this good minute scourin’ the woods lookin’ 
for ye. Oh, then, it’s sore hearts we’ve had this 
day ! An’ wan was sent wan way, an’ wan 


RETURN TO THE CAMP. 


183 


another, an’ the cap’n hisself he wint up the river, 
and, before he goes, he says to me, says he, ‘ Bri- 
ant, you’ll stop here and watch the camp, for 
may-be they’ll come wanderin’ back to it, av 
they’ve bin and lost theirselves ; an’ mind ye 
don’t lave it or go to slape. An’ if they do come, 
or ye hear any news o’ them, jist you light up a 
great fire, an’ I’ll be on the look-out, an’ we’ll aU 
on us come back as fast as we can. Now, that’s 
the truth, an’ the whole truth, an’ nothin’ but the 
truth, as the judge said to the witness when he 
swore at him. 

This was a comforting piece of information to 
Glynn and Ailie, so, without further delay, they 
assisted their overjoyed comrade to collect the 
scattered embers of the fire and boil the kettle. 
In this work they were aU the more energetic that 
the pangs of hunger were beginning to remind 
them of the frugal and scanty nature of their last 
meed. 

The bonfire did its work effectually. From all 
parts of the fbrest to which they had wandered, 
the party came, dropping in one by one to con- 
gratulate the lost and found pair. Last of all 
came Captain Dunning and Tim Rokens, for the 
harpooner had vowed he would “ stick to the 
cap’n through thick and thin.” Tim kept his 
word faithfully. Through thick tangled brak- 
and thin mud-swamps, did he follow his wre+ 
commander that night, until he could Sf 


184 


THE RED ERIC. 


stand for fatigue, or keep his eyes open for sleep ; 
and when the captain rushed into the camp at 
last, and clasped his sobbing child to his heart, 
Tim Rokens rushed in along with him, halted 
beside him, thrust his hands into his pockets, and 
looked on, while his eyes blinked with irresisti- 
ble drowsiness, and his mud-bespattered visage 
beamed with excessive joy. 


“ LIFE.” 185 


CHAPTER XIII. 

Philosophical Remarks on “ Life.” — A Monkey shot and a Monkej 
found. — Jacko described. 

“ Such is life ! ” There is deep meaning in 
that expression, though it is generally applied in 
a bantering manner to life in all its phases, under 
aU its peculiar and diversified circumstances. 
Taking a particular view of things in general, we 
may say of life that it is composed of diverse 
and miscellaneous materials : — the grave and 
the gay ; the sad and the comic ; the extraordi- 
nary and the common-place ; the flat and the 
piquant ; the heavy and the light ; the religious 
and the profane ; the bright and the dark ; the 
shadow and the sunshine. All these, and a great 
deal more, similar as well as dissimilar, enter into 
the composition of what we familiarly term life. 

These elements, too, are not arranged accord- 
ing to order, at least, order that is perceptible to 
)ur feeble human understandings. That there 
does exist both order and harmony is undenia- 
ble ; but we cannot see it. The elements appear 
to be miscellaneously intermingled — to-be acci- 
dentally thrown together ; yet, while in looking 
at them in detail, there seems to us a good deal 
of unreasonable and chaotic jumble, in regarding 
16 * 


186 


THE RED ERIC. 


them as a whole, or as a series of wholes, it be* 
comes apparent that there is a certain harmony 
of arrangement that may be termed kaleidoscop- 
ically beautiful ; and when, in the course of events, 
we are called to the contemplation of something 
grand or lovely, followed rather abruptly by some- 
thing curiously contemptible or absurd, we are 
tempted to give utterance to the thoughts that 
are too complicated and deep for rapid analysis, 
in the curt expression “ Such is life.” 

The physician invites his friends to a social 
reimion. He chats and laughs at the passing 
jest, or takes part in the music — the glee, or the 
comic song. A servant whispers in his ear. Ten 
minutes elapse, and he is standing by the bed 
of death. He watches the flickering flame ; he 
endeavors to relieve the agonized frame ; he 
wipes the cold sweat from the pale brow, and 
moistens the dry lips, w pours words of true, 
earnest, tender comfort into the ears of the be- 
reaved. The contrast here is very violent and 
sudden. We have chosen, perhaps, the most 
striking instance of the kind that is afforded in 
the experience of men ; yet such, in a greater or 
less degree, is life, in the case of every one born 
into this wonderful world of ours, and such, un- 
doubtedly, it was intended to be. ‘‘ There is a 
time for all things.” We were made capable of 
laughing and crying ; therefore, these being sin- 
less indulgences in the abstract, we ought b 


TIM ROKENS’ PECULIARITIES. 


187 


laugh and cry. And one of our great aims in 
life should be to get our hearts and affections so 
trained that we shall laugh and cry at the right 
time. It may be well to remark, in passing, that 
we should avoid, if possible, doing both at once. 

Now, such being life, we consider that we 
shall be doing no violence to the harmonies of 
life, if we suddenly, and without further preface 
transport the reader into the middle of next day, 
and a considerable distance down the river up 
which we have for some time been travelling. 

Here he (or she) wUl find Ailie and her father, 
and the whole party in fact, floating calmly and 
pleasantly down the stream in their canoe. 

“ Now, this is wot I do enjoy,’’ said Rokens, 
laying down his paddle and wiping the perspi- 
ration from his brow ; it’s the pleasantest sort o’ 
thing I’ve known since I went to sea.” 

To judge from the profuse perspiration that 
flowed from his brow and from the excessive 
redness of his face, one would suppose that 
Rokens’ experience of “ pleasant sort o’ things ” 
had not hitherto been either extensive or deep. 
But the man meant what he said, and a well- 
known proverb clears up the mystery — “ What’s 
one man’s meat is another’s poison!” Hard 
work, violent physical exertion, and excessive 
heat were Rokens’ delight, and, whatever may 
be the opinion of flabby-muscled, flat individu- 
als, there can be no reasonable doubt that Ro- 


188 


THE RED ERIC. 


kens meant it, when he added emphatically, 
“ It’s fuss-rate ; tip-top ; A 1 on Lloyd’s, that’s a 
fact.” 

Phil Briant on hearing this laid down his pad- 
dle, also wiped his forehead with the sleeve of 
his coat, and exclaimed, — 

“ Ditto, says 1.” 

Whereupon Glynn laughed, and Jim Scrog- 
gles grunted (this being Ms method of laughing), 
and the captain shook his head and said, — 

« p’r’aps it is, my lads, a pleasant sort o’ thing, 
but the sooner we’re out of it the better. I’ve no 
notion of a country where the natives murder 
poor little boys in cold blood, and carry off your 
goods and chattels at a moment’s notice.” 

The captain looked at Ailie as he spoke, 
thereby implying that she was part of the 
‘‘goods and chattels” referred to. 

“ Shure it’s a fact ; an’ without sayin’ by yer 
lave, too,” added Briant, who had a happy facil- 
ity of changing his opinion on the shortest notice 
to accommodate himself to circumstances. 

“ Oh, the monkey ! ” screamed Ailie. 

Now as Ailie screamed this just as Briant 
ceased to speak, and, moreover, pointed, or ap- 
peared to point, straight into that individual’s 
face, it was natural to suppose that the child 
was becoming soTjiewhat personal — the more 
so that Briant’s vi^ge, when wrinkled up and 
tanned by the glare of a tropical sun, was not 


A SURPRISSl* 


189 


unlike to that of a large baboon. But every 
one knew that Ailie was a gentle, weU-behaved 
creature — except perhaps when she was seized 
with one of her gleeful fits that bordered some- 
times upon mischief — so that instead of sup- 
posing that she had made a personal attack on 
the unofiending Irishman, the boat’s crew in- 
stantly directed their eyes close past Briant’s face 
and into the recesses of the wood beyond, where 
they saw a sight that fiUed them with surprise. 

A large-leaved tree of the palm species over- 
hung the banks of the river and formed a sup- 
port to a wild vine and several bright flowering 
parasitical plants that drooped in graceful luxuri- 
ance from its branches and swept the stream, 
which at that place was dark, smooth, and deep. 
On the top of this tree, in among the branches, 
sat a monkey — at least so Ailie called it ; but 
the term ape or baboon would have been more 
appropriate, for the creature was a very large 
one, and, if the expression of its countenance 
indicated in any degree the feelings of its heart, 
also a very fierce one — an exceedingly ferocious 
one indeed. This monkey’s face was as black 
as coal, and its two deep-seated eyes were, if 
possible, blacker than coal. Its head was bald, 
but the rest of its body was plentifully covered 
with hair. 

Now this monkey was evidently caught — 
taken by surprise — for instead of trying to es- 


190 


THE KED ERIC. 


cape as the canoe approached, it sat there chat- 
tering and exhibiting . its teeth to a degree that 
was quite fiendish, not to say — under the cir- 
cumstances — unnecessary. As the canoe drop- 
ped slowly down the river, it became obvious 
that this monkey had a baby, for a very small 
and delicate creature was seen clinging round 
the big one^s waist with its little hands grasping 
tightly the long hair on the mother’s sides, its 
arms being much too short to encircle her body. 
Ailie’s heart leapt with an emotion of tender de- 
light as she observed that the baby monkey’s 
face was white and sweet-looking; yes, we 
might even go the length of saying that, for a 
monkey, it was actually pretty. But it had a 
subdued, sorrowful look that was really touching 
to behold. It seemed as though that infantine 
monkey had, in the course of its brief career, 
been subjected to every species of affliction, to 
every imaginable kind of heart-crushing sorrow, 
and had remained deeply meek and humble un- 
der it all. Only for one brief instant did a differ- 
ent expression cross its melancholy face. That 
was when it first caught sight of the canoe. 
Then it exposed its very small teeth and gums 
after the fashion of its mother ; but repentance 
seemed to follow instantly, for the sad look, 
mixed with a dash of timidity, resumed its 
place, and it buried its face in its mother’s bosom. 
At that moment there was a loud report. A 


MURDER. 191 

bullet whistled through the air and struck the old 
monkey in the breast. We are glad to say, for the 
credit of our sailors, that a howl of indignation 
immediately followed, and more than one fist was 
raised to smite the trader who had fired the shot. 
But Captain Dunning called the men to order in a 
peremptory voice while every eye was turned 
toward the tree to observe the effect of the shot. 
As for Ailie she sat breathless with horror at the 
cruelty of the act. 

The old monkey gave vent to a loud yell, 
clutched her breast with her hands, sprang wildly 
into the air, and fell to the ground. Her leap 
was so violent that the young one was shaken 
off and fell at some distance from its poor mother, 
which groaned once or twice and then died. 
The baby seemed unhurt. Gathering itseff 
nimbly up, it ran away from the men who had 
now landed, but who stood still, by the captain’s 
orders, to watch its motions. Looking round, it 
observed its mother’s form lying on the ground, 
and at once ran toward it and buried its little 
face in her breast, at which sight Ailie began to 
cry quietly. In a few seconds the little monkey 
got up and gently pawed the old one ; then, on 
receiving no sign of recognition, it uttered a faint 
wail, something like “ Wee-wee-wee-wee-oo ! ” 
and again hid its face in the breast of its dead 
parent. 

“ Ah ! the poor cratur,” said Briant, in a tone 


192 


THE RED ERIC. 


of voice that betrayed his emotion. “ Oh, why 
did ye kill her ? ” 

“ Me ketch ’im ? ” said Bumble, looking in- 
quiringly at the captain. 

“ Oh, do ! ” answered Ailie, with a sob. 

The negro deemed this permission sufficient, 
for he instantly sprang forward, and throwing a 
piece of net over the little monkey, secured it. 

Now the way in which that baby monkey 
struggled, and kicked, and shrieked, when it found 
itself a prisoner, was perfectly wonderful to see ! 
It seemed as if the strength of fifty little monkeys 
had been compressed into its diminutive body, 
and King Bumble had to exert all his strength in 
order to hold the creature while he carried it into 
the canoe. Once safely there and in the middle 
of the stream, it was let loose. The first thing it 
did on being set free was to give a shriek of tri- 
umph, for monkeys, like men, when at last allowed 
to doHhat which they have long struggled in vain 
to accomplish, usually take credit for the achieve- 
ment of their own success. 

Its next impulse was to look round at the faces 
of the men in search of its mother ; but the poor 
mother was now lying dead and covered with a 
cloth in the bottom of the canoe, so the little mon- 
key turned from one to another with disappoint- 
ment in its glance and then uttered a low wail of 
sorrow. Glynn Proctor affirmed positively that 
it looked twice at Phil Briant and even made a 


ailie’s pet. 


193 


motioiT' toward him ; but we rather suspect .that 
Glynn was jesting. Certain it is, however, that 
it looked long and earnestly at Ailie, and there is 
little doubt that, young though it was, it was able 
to distinguish something in her tender gaze of af- 
fection and pity that proved attractive. It did 
not, however, accept her invitation to go to her, 
although given in the most persuasive tones of 
her silvery voice, and when any of the men tried 
to pat its head, it displayed such a row of sharp 
little teeth, and made such a fierce demonstration 
of its intention to bite, that they felt constrained 
to leave it alone. At last, Ailie held her hands 
toward it and said, — 

“Won’t it come to me, dear, sweet pet? do 
come ; I’ll be as kind to you almost as your poor 
mother.” 

The monkey looked at the child, but said noth- 
ing. 

“ Come, monkey, dear pnggy, do come,” re- 
peated Ailie, in a still more insinuating voice. 

The monkey still declined to “ come,” but it 
looked very earnestly at the child, and trembled 
a good deal, and said, “ Oo-oo-wee ; oo-oo-wee ! ” 

As Ailie did not quite understand this, she said, 
“ Poor thing ! ” and again held out her hand. 

“ Try it with a small taste o’ mate,” suggested 
Briant. 

“ Right,” said the captain. “ Hand me the bis- 
17 


194 


THE RED ERIC. 


cui^-bag, Glynn. There, now, Ailie, try it with 
that.” 

Ailie took the piece of biscuit offered to her 
by her father, and held it out to the monkey, who 
advanced with nervous caution, and very slowly, 
scratching its side the while. Putting out its very 
small hand, it touched the biscuit, then drew back 
the hand suddenly, and made a variety of sounds, 
accompanied by several peculiar contortions of 
visage, all of which seemed to say, “ Don’t hurt 
me, now ; don't deceive me, pray.” Again it put 
forth its hand, and took the biscuit, and ate it in 
a very great hurry indeed ; that is to say, it stuffed 
it into the bags in its cheeks. 

Ailie gave it a bit more biscuit, which it re- 
ceived graciously, and devoured voraciously ; 
whereupon, she put forth her hand, and sought to 
pat the little creature on the head. The attempt 
was successful. With many slight grins, as 
though to say, “ Take care, now, else I’ll bite,” 
the small monkey allowed Ailie to pat its head 
and stroke its back. Then it permitted her to 
take hold of its hand, and draw it toward her. 
In a few minutes, it showed evident symptoms of 
a desire to be patted again, and at length it drew 
timidly toward the child, and took hold of her 
hand in both of its delicate pink paws. Ailie felt 
quite tenderly toward the creature, and stroked 
its head again, whereupon it seemed suddenly to 
cast aside all fear. It leaped upon her knee, puf 
its slender arms as far round her neck as possible. 


ailie’s pet. 


195 


said “ Oo-oo-wee ! ” several times in a very sad 
tone of voice, and laid its head upon her bosom. 

This was too much for poor AiUe ; she thought 
of the dead mother of this infant monkey, and 
wept as she stroked its hairy little head and shoul- 
ders. From that time forward, the monkey 
adopted Ailie as its mother, and Ailie adopted 
the monkey as her child. 

Now the behavior of that monkey during the 
remainder of that voyage was wonderful. Oh, you 
know, it was altogether preposterous, to say the 
very least of it. Affection, which displayed itself 
in a desire to conciliate the favor of every one, 
was ingrained in its bones ; while deception, which 
was evinced in a constant effort to appear to be 
intent upon one thing, when it was really bent 
upon another, was incorporated with its marrow ! 

At first it was at war with every one, excepting, 
of course, Ailie, its adopted mother ; but soon it 
became accustomed to the men, and in the course 
of a few days would go to any one who called it. 
Phil Briant was a particular favorite; so was 
Rokens, with whose black beard it played in evi- 
dent delight, running its slender fingers through 
it, disentangling the knots and the matted portions 
which the owner of the beard had never yet been 
able to disentangle in a satisfactory way for him- 
self; and otherwise acting the part of a barber 
and hair-dresser to that bold mariner, much to hia 
amusement and greatly to the delight and admi 
ration of the whole party. 


196 


THE RED ERIC. 


To say that that small monkey had a face 
would be to assert what was unquestionably true, 
but what, also, was very far short of the whole 
truth. No one ever could make up his mind ex- 
actly as to how many faces it had. If you looked 
at it at any particular time, and then shut your 
eyes and opened them a moment after, that mon- 
key, as far as expression went had another and a 
totally different face. Repeat the operation, and 
it had a third face ; continue the process, and it 
had a fourth face ; and so on, until you lost count 
altogether of its multitudinous faces. Now it was 
grave and pensive; anon it was blazing with 
amazement ; again it bristled with indignation ; 
then it glared with anger, and presently it was all 
serene — blended love and wrinkles. Of all these 
varied expressions, that of commingled surprise 
and indignation was the most amusing, because 
those emotions had the effect of not only opening 
its eyes and its mouth to the form of three exces- 
sively round O’s but also raised a small tuft of 
hair just above its forehead into a bristling posi- 
tion, and threw its brow into an innumerable series 
of wrinkles. This complex expression was of fre- 
quent occurrence, for its feelings were tender and 
sensitive, so that it lived in the firm belief that its 
new friends (always excepting AiHe) constantly 
wished to insult it; and was afflicted with a 
chronic state of surprise at the cruelty, and of in- 
dignation at the injustice, of men who could 


ailie’s pet. 


197 


wantonly injure the feelings of so young, and 
especially so small a monkey. 

When the men called it, it used to walk up to 
them with calm, deliberate condescension in its air 
when Ailie held out her hand, it ran on its two 
legs, and being eager in its affections, it held out 
its arms in order to be caught up. As to food, that 
monkey was not particular. It seemed to be omniv- 
erous. Certain it is that it never refused any 
thing, but more than once it was observed quietly 
to throw away things that it did not relish. 
Once, in an unguarded moment, it accepted and 
chewed a small piece of tobacco ; after which it 
made a variety of entirely new faces, and became 
very sick indeed — so sick that its adopted mother 
began to fear she was about to lose her child ; 
but after vomiting a good deal, and moaning 
piteously for several days, it gradually recovered, 
and from that time entertained an unquenchable 
hatred for tobacco, and for the man who had 
given it to him, who happened to be Jim Scroggles. 

Ailie, being of a romantic temperament, named 
her monkey Albertino, but the sailors called him 
Jacko, and their name ultimately became the 
well-known one of the little foundling, for Ailie 
was not obstinate; so, seeing that the sailors 
did not or could not remember Albertino, she 
soon gave in, and styled her pet Jacko to the end 
of the chapter, with which piece of information 
we shall conclude this chapter. 

17 * 


198 


THE RED ERIC. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Rencontre with Slave-traders. — On board again. — A Start, n 

Misfortune, a Ghost Story, a Mistake, and an Invitation to 

Dinner. 

On the evening of the second day after the 
capture of Jacko, as the canoe was descending 
the river and drawing near to the sea-coast, much 
to the delight of every one — for the heat of the 
interior had begun to grow unbearable — a ship’s 
boat was observed moored to the wharf near the 
slave-station which they had passed on the way 
up. At first it was supposed to be one of the 
boats of the Red Eric, but on a nearer approach 
this proved to be an erroneous opinion. 

“Wot can it be a-doin’ of here?” inquired 
Tim Rokens, in an abstracted tone of voice, as if 
he put the question to himself, and therefore did 
not expect an answer. 

“ No doubt it’s a slaver’s boat,” replied the 
trader ; “ they often come up here for cargoes of 
niggers.” 

“ Och ! the blackguards ! ” exclaimed Phil Bri- 
ant, all his blood rising at the mere mention of the 
horrible traffic ; “ couldn’t we land, capting, and 
give them a lickin’ ? ” I’ll engage meself to put 
six at laste o’ the spalpeens on their beam-ends,” 


THE SLAVE-TRADERS. 


199 


“ No, Phil, we shan’t land for that purpose ; 
but we’ll land for some gunpowder, an’ a barrel 
or two of plantains ; so give way lads.” 

In another moment the bow of the canoe slid 
upon the mud-bank of the river close to the slav- 
er’s boat, which was watched by a couple of the 
most villandus-looking men that ever took part 
in that disgraceful traffic. They were evidently 
Portuguese sailors, and the scowl of their bronzed 
faces, when they saw the canoe approach the 
landing-place, showed that they had no desire to 
enter into amicable converse with the strangers. 

At this moment the attention of the travellers 
was drawn to a gang of slaves who approached 
the wharf, chained together by the neck, and 
guarded by the crew of the Portuguese boat. 
Ailie looked on with a feeling of dread that in- 
duced her to cling to her father’s hand, while the 
men stood with folded arms, compressed lips, 
and knitted brows. 

Gn the voyage up they had landed at this 
station, and had seen the slaves in their places 
of confinement. The poor creatures were appa- 
rently happy at that time, and seemed totally 
indifferent to their sad fate ; but their aspect 
was very different now. They were being hur- 
ried away, they knew not whither, by strangers 
whom they had been taught to believe were 
monsters of cruelty besides being cannibals, and 
who had purchased them for the purpose of kiU- 


200 


THE RED ERIC. 


ing them and eating their bodies. The wild, 
terrified looks of the men, and the subdued looks 
and trembling gait of the women showed that 
they expected no mercy at the hands of their 
captors. 

They hung back a little as they drew near to 
the boat, whereupon one of their conductors, who 
seemed to be in command of the party, uttered 
a fierce exclamation in Portuguese, and struck 
several of the men and women indiscriminately 
severe blows with his fists. In a few minutes 
they were aU placed in the boat, and the crew 
had partly embarked, when Phil Briant, unable 
to restrain himself, muttered between his teeth 
to the Portuguese commander, as he passed, — 

“ Ye imp o’ darkness, av I only had ye in 
the ring for tshwo minits — jist tshwo — ah thin 
wouldn’t I polish ye olf.” 

“ Fat you say, sare ? ” cried the man, turning 
fiercely towards Briant, and swearing at him in 
bad English.^ 

“ Say, is it ? Oh, then there^s a translation 
for ye, that’s understood in all lingos.” 

Phil shook his clenched fist as close as possi- 
ble to the nose of the Portuguese commander 
without actually coming into contact with that 
hooked and prominent organ. 

The man started back and drew hi^ knife, at 
the same time caUing to several of his men, who 
advanced with their drawn knives. 


BRIANT WAXES PUGNACIOUS. 


201 


“Ho!” cried Briant, and a jovial smile over- 
spread his rough countenance as he sprang to a 
clear spot of ground and rolled up both sleeves 
of his shirt to the shoulders, thereby displaying 
a pair of arms that might at a rapid glance, have 
been mistaJten for a pair of legs — “that’s yei 
game, is it ? wont I stave in yer planks ! wont I 
shiver yer timbers, and knock out yer day-lights, 
bless yer purty faces ! I didn’t think ye had it in 
ye ; come on, darlints — toothpicks and all — as 
many as ye like; the more the better — wan at a 
time, or all at wance, it don’t matter, not the 
laste, be no manes ! ” 

While Briant gave utterance to these liberal 
invitations, he performed a species of revolving 
dance, and flourished his enormous fists in so 
ludicrous a manner, that despite the serious 
nature of the fray the two parties were likely to 
be speedily engaged in, his comrades could not 
restrain their laughter. 

“ Go it, Pat ! ” cried one. 

“ True blue ! ” shouted another. 

“ Silence ! ” cried Captain Dunning, in a woice 
that enforced obedience. “ Get into the canoe^ 
Briant.” 

“ Och ! capting,” exclaimed the wrathful Irish- 
man, reproachfully, “ sure ye wouldn’t spile the 
fun ? ” 

“ Go to the canoe, sir.” 

“ Ah ! capting dear, jist wan round ! ” 


202 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Go to the canoe, I say.” 

“ FU do it all in four minutes an’ wan quarter 
av ye’ll only shut yer eyes,” pleaded Phil. 

“ Obey orders, will you ? ” cried the captain, in 
a voice there was no mistaking. 

Briant indignantly thrust his fists into his 
breeches pockets, and rolled slowly down toward 
the canoe, as — to use one of his own favorite 
expressions — sulky as a bear with a broken head. 

Meanwhile the captain stepped up to the Por- 
tuguese sailors and told them to mind their own 
business, and let honest men alone ; adding, that 
if they did not take his advice, he would first give 
them a licking and then pitch them all into the 
river. 

This last remark caused Briant to prick up his 
ears and withdraw his fists from their inglorious 
retirement, in the fond hope that there might still 
be work for them to do ; but on observing that 
the Portuguese, acting on the principle that dis- 
cretion is the better part of valor, had taken the 
advice and were returning to their own boat, he 
relapsed into the sulks, and seated himself dog- 
gedly in his place in the canoe. 

During all this little scene, which was enacted 
much more rapidly than it has been described, 
master Jacko, having escaped from the canoe, had 
been seated near the edge of the wharf, looking 
on, apparently, with deep interest. Just as the 
Portuguese turned away to embark in their boat, 


DESERVED PUNISHMENT. 


203 


Ailie’s eye alighted on her pet ; at the same mo- 
ment the foot of the Portuguese commander 
alighted on her pet’s tail. Now the tails of all 
animals seem to be peculiarly sensitive. Jacko’s 
certainly was so, for he instantly uttered a shriek 
of agony, which was as quickly responded to by 
its adopted mother in a scream of alarm as she 
sprang forward to the rescue. When one unin- 
tentionally treads on the tail of any animal and 
thereby evokes a yeU, he is apt to start and trip 
— in nine cases out of ten he does trip. The 
Portuguese commander tripped upon this occa- 
sion. In staggering out of the monkey’s way he 
wellnigh tumbled over AUie, and in seeking to 
avoid her, he tumbled over the edge of the wharf 
into the river. 

The difference between the appearance of this 
redoubtable slave-buying hero before and after his 
involuntary immersion was so remarkable and 
great, that his most intimate friend would have 
failed to recognize him. He went down into 
the slimy liquid, an ill-favored Portuguese, clad 
in white duck ; he came up a worse-favored mon- 
strosity, clothed in mud ! Even his own rascally 
comrades grinned at him for a moment, but their 
grins changed into a scowl of anger when they 
heard the peals of laughter that burst from the 
throats of their enemies. As for Briant, he abso- 
lutely hugged himself with delight. 

" Och ! ye’ve got it ye have,” he exclaimed, at 


204 


THE llED ERIC. 


intervals. Happy day! who’d ha’ thought it? 
to see him tumbled in the mud after all, by purty 
little Ailie and Jacko. Come here to me, Jacko, 
owld coon. Oh, ye swate cratur ! ” 

Briant seized the monkey, and squeezed it to his 
breast, and kissed it — yes, he actually kissed its 
nose in the height of his glee, and continued to 
utter incoherent exclamations, and to perpetrate 
incongruous absurdities, until long after they had 
descended the river, and left the muddy Portu- 
guese and his conuades far behind them. 

Toward evening the party were once more 
safe and sound on board the Red Eric, where they 
found every thing repaired, and the ship in a fit 
state to proceed to sea immediately. 

His Majesty King Bumble was introduced to 
the steward, then to the cook, and then to the ca- 
boose. Master Jacko was introduced to the ship’s 
crew, and to his quarters, which consisted of a 
small box filled with straw, and was lashed near 
the foot of the mizzen-mast. These introductions 
having been made, the men who had accompa- 
nied their commander on his late excursion into 
the interior, went forward, and regaled their mess- 
mates for hours with anecdotes of their travels in 
the wilds of Africa. 

It is weU known, and generally acknowledged 
that all sublunary things, pleasant as well as un- 
pleasant, must come to an end. In the course of 
two days more, the sojourn of the crew of the Red 


AGROUND ON A MUD-BANK. 


205 


Eric on the coast of Africa, came to a termination. 
Having taken in supplies of fresh provisions, the 
anchor was weighed, and the ship stood out to 
sea with the first of the ebb tide. It was near sum 
set when the sails were hoisted, and filled by a 
gentle land breeze, and the captain had just prom- 
ised Ailie that he would show her blue watei 
again by breakfast-time next morning, when a 
slight tremor passed through the vessel’s huU, 
causing the captain to shout, with a degree of 
vigor that startled every one on board, “ All 
hands ahoy ! lower .away the boats, Mr. Millons, 
we’re hard and fast aground on a mud-bank ! ” 

The boats were lowered away with all speed, 
and the sails clewed up instantly, but the Red 
Eric remained as immovable as the bank on which 
she had run aground ; there was, therefore, no 
course but to wait patiently for the rising tide to 
float her off again. Fortunately the bank was 
soft, and the wind light, else it might have gone 
iU with the good ship. 

There is scarcely any conceivable condition so 
favorable to quiet confidential conversation and 
story-teUing as the one in which the men of the 
whaleship now found themselves. The night 
was calm and dark, but beautiful, for a host of 
stars sparkled in the sable sky, and twinkled up 
firom the depths of the dark ocean. The land- 
breeze had fallen, and there was scarcely any 
sound to break the surrounding stillness except 
18 


206 


THE RED ERIC. 


the lipping water as it kissed the hull of the ship 
A dim, scarce perceptible light rendered every 
object on board mysterious and unaccountably 
large. 

“ Wot a night for a ghost story,” observed Jim 
Scroggles, who stood with a group of the men, 
who were seated on and around the windlass. 

“ I don’t b’lieve in ghosts,” said Dick Barnes, 
stoutly, in a tone of voice that rendered the ve- 
racity of his assertion, to say the least of it, doubt- 
ful. 

“ Nother do I,” remarked .Nikel Sling, who had 
just concluded his culinary operations for the day, 
and sought to employ his brief interval of relax- 
ation in social intercourse with his fellows. Be- 

cr engaged in ministering to the animal wants 
V.1 comrades all day, he felt himself entitled 
to enjoy a little of the “feast of reason and the 
flow of soul ” at night. 

“ No more duv I,” added Phil Briant firmly, at 
the same time hitting his thigh a slap with his 
open hand that caused all around him to start. 

“ You don’t, don’t you ? ” said Tim Rokens, ad* 
dressing the company generally, and looking 
round gravely, while he pushed the glowing to- 
bacco into his pipe with the point of a marline- 
spike. 

To this there was a chorus of “ Noes,” but a 
close observer would have noticed that nearly the 
whole conversation was carried on in low tones, 


OPINIONS IN EEGARD TO GHOSTS. 207 

and that many a glance was cast behind, as if 
these bold sct^ptics more than half expected all 
the ghosts that did happen to exist to seize them 
then and there and carry them off as a' punish- 
ment for their unbelief. 

Tim Rokens drew a few whiffs of his pipe, and 
looked round gravely before he again spoke ; then 
he put the following momentous question, with 
the air of a man who knew he could overturn his 
adversary, whatever his reply should be : 

“ An’ why don’t ye b’lieve in ’em ? ” 

We cannot say positively that Tim Rokens put 
the question to Jim Scroggles, but it is certain 
that Jim Scroggles accepted the question as ad- 
dressed to him, and answered in reply — 

“ ’ Cause why ? I never seed a ghost, an’ no- 
body never seed a ghost, an’ I don’t b’lieve in 
what I can’t see.” 

Jim said this as if he thought the position in- 
contestable. Tim regarded him with a prolonged 
stare, but for some time said nothing. At last he 
emitted several strong puffs of smoke, and said — 
“Young man, did you ever^ee your own mind? ” 
“ No, in course not,” 

“ Did anybody else ever see it? ” 

“ Cer’nly not.” 

“Then of course you don’t believe in it!” 
added Rokens, while a slight smile curled hia 
upper lip. 

The men (chuckled a good deal at Jim’s confu- 


THE RED ERIC. 


sion, while he in vain attempted to explain that 
the two ideas were not parallel by any means. 
At this juncture, Phil Briant came to the rescue. 

“ Ah now, git out,” said he. “I agree with 
Jim, intirely ; an’ Tim Bokens isn’t quite so 
diver as he thinks. Now look here, lads, here’s 
how it stands, ’xactly. Jim says he never seed 
his own mind — very good; and he says as how 
nobody else niver seed it, nother ; well, and wot 
then ? Don’t you observe it’s ’cause he ha’n’t got 
none at all to see ? He ha’n’t got even the ghost 
of one, so how could ye expect anybody to see it ? ” 
' “ Oh, hold yer noise, Paddy,” exclaimed Dick 
Barnes, “ an’ let’s have a ghost story from Tim 
Bokens. He b’lieves in ghosts, anyhow, an’ could 
give us a yarn about ’em, I knows, if he likes. 
Come along now, Tim, like a good fellow.” 

“ Ay, that’s it,” cried Briant; “ give us a stiff 
’un now. Don’t be afeard to skear us, old boy.” 

“ Oh, I can give ye a yarn about ghosts, cer’nly,” 
said Tim Bokens, looking into the bowl of his 
pipe in order to make sure that it was sufficiently 
charged to last out the story. “ I’ll teU ye of a 
ghost I once seed and knocked down.” 

“ Knocked down ! ” cried Nikel Sling, in sur- 
prise ; “ why, I allers thought as how ghosts was 
spirits, an’ couldn’t be knocked down or notched 
neither.” 

“ Not at all,” replied Bokens ; “ ghosts is made 
of all sorts o’ things — brass, and iron, and linen, 


THE GHOST STOKY. 


209 


and buntin’, and timber ; it wos a brass ghost the 
feller that I’m goin’ to tell ye about 

“ I say, Sling,” interrupted Briant, “ av ghost 
wos spirits, as you thought they wos, would they 
be allowed in the State of Maine ?” 

“ Oh, Phil, shut up, do ! Now then, Tim, fire 
away.” 

“ Well then,” began Rokens, with great delibe- 
ration, “ it was on a Vednesday night as it hap- 
pened. I had bin out at supper with a friend 
that night, and we’d had a glass or two o’ grog ; 
for ye see, lads, it was some years ago, afore I 
tuk to temp’rance. I had a long way to go over 
a great dark moor a’fore I could git to the place 
where I lodged, so I clapped on all sail to git 
over the moor, seein’ the moon would go down 
soon ; but it wouldn’t do : the moon set when I 
wos in the very middle of the moor, and as the 
road wasn’t over good, , I wos in a state o’ con- 
fumble lest I should lose it altogether. I looks 
round in all directions, but I couldn’t see nothin’ 
— cause why ? there wasn’t nothin’ to be seen. 
It was ’orrid dark, I can tell ye. Jist one or two 
stars a shinin’, like half a dozen farden dips in a 
great church ; they only made darkness wisible. 
I began to feel all over a cur’ous sort o’ peculiar 
unaccountableness, which it ain’t easy to explain, 
but is most oncommon disagreeable to feel. It 
wos very still, too — desperate stfrl. The beatin’ 
o’ my own heart sounded quite loud, and I heer’d 
18 * 


210 


THE RED ERIC. 


the tickin’ o’ my watch goin’ like the click of a 
church clock. Oh, it was awful ! ” 

At this point in the story the men crept closer 
together, and listened with intense earnestness. 

“ Suddently,” continued Rokens — for things 
in sich circumstances always comes suddently — 
suddently I seed somethin’ black jump up right 
ahead o’ me.” 

Here Rokens paused. 

“ Wot was it? ” inquired Gurney, in a solemn 
whisper. 

“ It was,” resumed Rokens, slowly, “ the stump 
of a old tree.” 

“ Oh, I thought it had been the ghost,” said 
Gurney, somewhat relieved, for that fat little Jack- 
tar fully believed in apparitions, and always lis- 
tened to a ghost story in fear and trembling. 

“ No, it wasn’t the ghost ; it wos the stump oi 
a tree. WeU, I set sad again, an’ presently I 
sees a great white thing risin’ up right ahead o* 
me — ” 

“ Hah! that was it,” whispered Gurney. 

“ No, that wasn’t it,” retorted Rokens ; “ that 
was a hinn, a white painted hinn, as stood by the 
roadside, and right glad wos I to see it, I can teU 
ye, shipmates, for I wos gittin’ tired as well as 
frightened. I soon roused the landlord by kickin’ 
at the door till it nearly corned off its hinges ; and 
arter gittin’ another glass o’ grog, I axed the 
landlord to show me my bunk, as I wanted to 
turn in. 


THE GHOST STOEY. 


21i 


“ It was a queer old house that hinn wos. A 
great ramblin’ place, with no end o’ staircases 
and passages. A dreadful gloomy sort o’ place. 
No one lived in it except the landlord, a dark- 
faced, surly fellow, as one would like to kick out 
of his own door, and his wife, who wos little 
better than hisself. They also had a hostler, but 
he slept with the cattle in a hout-house. 

“ ‘ Ye won’t be fear’d,’ says the landlord, as he 
hove ahead through the long passages holdin’ the 
candle high above his head to show the way, ‘ to 
sleep in the far-end o’ the house. It’s the old 
bit ; the new bit’s undergoin’ repairs. You’U find 
it comfortable enough, though it’s raither gusty, 
bein’ old, ye see; but the weather ain’t cold, so 
ye won’t mind it.’ 

“ ‘ Oh ! niver a bit,’ says I, quite bold like ; I 
don’t care a rap for nothin’. There ain’t no 
ghosts, is there ? ’ 

“ Well, I’m not sure ; many travellers wot has 
stayed here has said to me they’ve seed ’em, par- 
ticklerly in the old part o’ the buildin’, but they 
seems to be quite harmless, and never hurts any 
one as lets ’em alone. I never seed ’em myself, 
an’ there’s cer’nly not more nor half-a-dozen on 
em — haUo ! 

“ At that moment, shipmates, a strong gust o’ 
cold air came rushin’ down the passage we was in, 
and blow’d out the candle. ‘ Ah ! its gone out,’ 
said the landlord ; ust wait here a moment, and 


212 


THE RED ERIC. 


I’ll light it ; ’ and with that he shuffled off, and 
left me in the blackest and most thickest darkness 
J ever was in in all my life. I didn’t dare to move, 
for I didn’t know the channels, d’ye see, and might 
ha’ run myself aground or again’ the rocks in no 
time. The wind came moanin’ down the passages 
as if all the six ghosts the landlord mentioned, and 
a dozen or two o’ their friends besides, was a-dyin’ 
of stummick-complaint. I’m not easy frightened, 
lads, but my knees did feel as if the bones in ’em 
had turned to water, and my hair began to git up 
on end, for I felt it risin’. Suddently I saw some- 
thin’ cornin’ along the passage toward me ” 

“ That’s the ghost now^'^ interrupted Gurney, 
in a tremulous whisper. 

Rokens paused, and regarded his fat shipmate 
with a look of contemptuous pity ; then turning 
to the others, he said — “ It wos the landlord^ 
a-comin’ back with the candle. He begged pardon 
for leavin’ me in the dark so long, and led the way 
to a room at the far end of the passage. It was a 
big, old-fashioned room, with a tree-mendius high 
ceiling, and no furniture, ’cept one chair, one 
small tab e, and a low camp-bed in a corner. 

‘ Here’s your room,’ says the landlord; ‘it’s well- 
aired. I may as well mention that the latch of 
the door ain’t just the thing. It sometimes blows 
open with a bang, but when you know it may 
happen, you can be on the look-out for it, you 
know, and so you’ll not be taken by surprise. 


tIib ghost stout. 


213 


<TOod-night.’ With that the fellow set the candle 
down on the small table at the bed-side, and left 
me to my cogitations. I heerd his footsteps 
echoiri’ as he went clankin’ along the passages ; 
then they died away, an’ I was alone. 

“ Now, I tell ye wot it is, shipmates ; I’ve bin in 
many a fix, but I niver wos in sich a fix as that. 
The room was empty and big ; so big that the 
candle could only light up about a quarter of it, 
leavin’ the rest in gloom. There wos one or two old 
picturs on the walls ; one on ’em a portrait of a 
old admiral, with a blue coat and brass buttons 
and white veskit. It hung just opposite the fut o’ 
my bunk, an’ I could hardly make it out, but I 
saw that the admiral kep his eye on me whereiver 
I turned or moved about the room, an’ twice or 
thrice, if not more, I saw him wink with his 
weather eye. Yes, he winked as plain as I do my- 
self. Says I to myself, says I, ‘ Tim Rokens, you’re 
a British tar, an’ a whaler, an’ a harpooner ; so 
Tim, my boy, don’t you go for to be a babby.’ 

“ With that I smoked a pipe, and took off my 
clo’s, and tumbled in, and feeling a little bolder 
by this time, I blew out the candle. In gittin’ 
into bed I knocked over the snuffers, w’ich fell 
with an awful clatter, and my heart lep’ into Lny 
mouth as I lep’ under the blankets, and kivered 
up my head. Howsever, I was uncommon tired^ 
»o before my head was well on the pillow, I went 
off to sleep. 


214 


THE KED ERIC. 


“ How long I slep’ I can’t go for to say, but w^en 
I wakened it wos pitch dark. I could only just 
make out the winder by the pale starlight that 
shone through it, but the moment I set my two 
eyes on it, wot does I see ? I seed a sight that 
made the hair on my head stand on end, and my 

flesh creep up like a muffin. It was a ” 

“ A ghost! ” whispered Gurney, while his eyes 
almost' started out of his head. 

Before Tim Kokens could reply, something fell 
with a heavy ffop from the yard over their heads 
right in among the men, and vanished with a 
shriek. It was Jacko, who, in his nocturnal ram- 
bles in the rigging, had been shaken off the yard 
on which he was perched, by a sudden lurch of 
the vessel as the tide began to move her about. 
At any time such an event would have been start- 
ling, but at such a time as this it was horrifying. 
The men recoiled with sharp cries of terror, and 
then burst into laughter as they observed what it 
was that had fallen amongst them. But the 
laughter was subdued, and by no means hearty. 

“ I’ll be the death o’ that brute yet,” said Gur 
ney, wiping the perspiration from his forehead 
“ but go on, Rokens ; what was it you saw ? ” 

“ It was the ghost,” replied Rokens, as the men 
gathered round him again — “a long, thin ghost, 
standin’ at my bedside. The light was so dim that 
I couldn’t well make it out, but I saw that it was 
white, or pale-like, and that it had on a pointed 


THE GHOST STORY. 


215 


cap, like the cap o’ an old witch. I thought I 
should ha’ died outright, and I lay for full five 
minits tremblin’ like a leaf and starin’ full in its 
face. At last I started up in despair, not knowin’ 
well wot to do ; and the moment I did so the 
ghost^disappeared. 

“ I thought this was very odd, but you may be 
sure I didn’t find fault with it ; so after lookin’ all 
round very careful to make quite sure that it was 
gone, I lay down again on my back. Well, would 
ye b’lieve it, shipmates, at that same moment up 
starts the ghost again as bold as iver ? And up 
starts I in a fright ; but the moment I was up the 
ghost was gone. ‘ Now, Tim Rokens,’ says I to 
myself, always keepin’ my eye on the spot where 
I’d last seed the ghost; ‘this is queer; this is 
quite re-markaMe. You’re dreamin’, my lad, an’ 
the sooner ye put a stop to that ere sort o’ dreamin’ 
the better.’ 

“ Havin’ said this, I tried to feel reckless, and 
lay down again, and up started the ghost again 
with its long thin white body, an’ the pointed cap 
on its head. I noticed, too, that it wore its cap a 
little on one side quite jaunty like. So, wheniver 
I sot up that ’ere ghost disappeared, and wheniver 
I lay down it bolted up again close beside me. At 
last I lost my temper, and I shouts out quite loud, 
‘ Shiver my timbers,’ says I, ‘ ghost or no ghost. I’ll 
knock in your daylights if ye carry on like that 
any longer ; ’ and with that I up fist and let drive 


216 


THE RED ERIC. 


straight out at the spot where its bread-basket 
should ha’ bin. Down it went, that ghost did, 
with a clatter that made the old room echo like 
an empty church. I guv it a rap, I did, sich as 
it hadn’t had since it was born — if ghosts be 
born at all — an’ my knuckles paid for it, too, for 
they was skinned all up ; then I lay down trem- 
blin’, and then, I dun know how it was, I went 
to sleep. 

“ Next mornin’ I got up to look for the ghost, 
and, sure enough, I found his remains! His 
pale body lay in a far corner o’ the room doubled 
up and smashed to bits, and his pointed cap 
lay in another corner almost flat. That ghost,” 
concluded Rokens, with slow emphasis — “ that 
ghost was the candle^ it wos ! ” 

“ The candle ! ” exclaimed several of the men 
in surprise. 

“ Yes, the candle, and brass candlestick with 
the stinguisher a-top o’t. Ye see, lads, the can- 
dle stood close to the side o’ my bed on the 
table, an’ when I woke up and I saw it there, 
it seemed to me like a big thing in the middle 
o’ the room, instead o’ a little thing close to my 
nose ; an’ when I sot up in my bed of coorse 1 
- looked right over the top of it and saw nothin’ ; 
an’ when I lay down of coorse it rose up in the 
very same place. An’, let me tell you, ship- 
mates,” added Tim, in conclusion, with the air 
of a philosopher, “ all ghosts is o’ the same sort. 


A SUSPICIOUS SAIL. 


217 


They’re most of ’em made o’ wood or brass, or 
some sich stuff, as I’ve good cause to remimber, 
for I had to pay the price o’ that ’ere ghost 
before I left that there hinn on the lonesome 
.noor, and for the washin’ of the blankets too, as 
wos all kivered with blood nixt mornin’ from my 
smashed knuckles. There’s a morial contained 
in most things, lads, if ye only try for to find it 
out; an’ the morial of my story is this, — don’t 
you go for to b’lieve that every thin’ ye don’t 
’xactly understand is a ghost until ye’ve got to 
know more about it.” 

While Tim Rokens was thus recounting his 
ghostly experiences, and moralizing thereon, for 
the benefit of his comrades, the silent tide was 
stealthily creeping up the sides of the Red Eric, 
and placing her gradually on an even keel. At 
the same time a British man-of-war was creep- 
ing down upon that innocent vessel with the mur- 
derous intention of blowing her out of water, if 
possible. 

In order to explain this latter fact, we must re- 
mind the reader of the boat and crew of the Por- 
tuguese slaver which was encountered by the 
party of excursionists on their trip down the river. 
The vessel to which that boat belonged had been 
for several weeks previous creeping about off the 
coast, watching her opportunity to ship a cargo 
of slaves, and at the same time to avoid falling 
into the hands of a British cruiser which was 
19 


218 


THE RED ERIC. 


stationed on the African coast to prevent the 
villanous traffic. The Portuguese ship, which 
was very similar in size and shape to the Red 
Eric, had hitherto managed to elude the cruiser, 
and had succeeded in taking a number of slaves 
on board ere she was discovered. The cruiser 
gave chase to her on the same afternoon as that 
on which the Red Eric grounded on the mud- 
bank off the mouth of the river. Darkness, how- 
ever, favored the slaver, and when the land-breeze 
failed, she was lost sight of in the intricacies of 
the navigation at that part of the coast. 

Toward morning, while it was yet dark, the 
Red Eric floated, and Captain Dunning, who 
had paced the deck all night with a somewhat 
impatient tread, caUed to the mate, — 

“ Now, Mr. Millons, man the boats, and let 
some of the hands stand by to trim the sails to 
the first puff of wind.’’ 

“ Ay, ay, sir,” answered the mate, as he sprang 
to obey. 

Now it is a curious fact, that at that identical 
moment the captain of the cruiser addressed his 
first lieutenant in precisely the same words, for he 
had caught a glimpse of the whaler’s topmasts 
against the dark sky, and mistook them, very 
naturally, for those of the slaver. In a few sec- 
onds the man-of-war was in full pursuit. 

“ I say. Dr. Hopley,” remarked Captain Dun- 
ning, as he gazed intently into the gloom astern 


CAPTAIN DUNNING’S SURPEISE. 


219 


“ did you not hear voices ? and, as I live, there’s 
a large ship bearing right down on us ! ” 

“ It must be a slaver,” replied the doctor 
“ probably the one that owned the boat we saw 
up the river.” 

“ Ship on the larboard bow ! ” shouted the 
■>ok-out on the forecastle. 

“ Hallo ! ships ahead and astern ! ” remarked 
the captain, in surprise. “ There seems to be a 
‘ school ’ of ’em in these waters.” 

At this moment the oars of the boats belong- 
ing to the ship astern were heard distinctly, and 
a light puff of wind at the same time bulged 
out the sails of the Red Eric, which instantly 
forged ahead. 

“Ship, ahoy! ” shouted a voice from the boats 
astern in a tone of authority ; “ heave-to, you 
rascal, or I’U sink you ! ” 

Captain Dunning turned to the doctor with 
a look of intense surprise. 

“ Why, doctor, that’s the usual hail of a pirate, 
or something like it. What it can be doing here 
is past my comprehension. I would as soon 
expect to find a whale in a wash-tub as a black 
flag in these waters ! Port, port a little (turn- 
ing to the steersman) — steady — so. We must 
run for it, anyhow, for we’re in no fightin’ trim. 
The best answer to give to such a had is silence.” 

Contrary to expectations the boats did not 
again hail, but in a few minutes the dark hull 
of the British cruiser became indistinctly visible 


221 


THE RED ERIC. 


as it slipped swiftly through the water before 
the freshening breeze, and neared the compara- 
tively slow-going whaler rapidly. Soon it came 
within easy range, and while Captain Dunning 
looked over the taffrail with a troubled coun- 
tenance, trying to make her out, the same voice 
came hoarsely down on the night breeze, issuing 
the same peremptory command. 

“ Turn up the hands, Mr. Millons, and serve 
out pistols and cutlasses. Get the carronades 
on the forecastle and quarter-deck loaded, Mr. 
Markham, and look alive; we must show the 
enemy a bold front, whoever he is.” 

As the captain issued these orders, the dark- 
ness was for an instant illuminated by a bright 
flash ; the roar of a cannon reverberated over the 
sea ; a round shot whistled through the rigging 
of the Red Eric, and the next instant the fore- 
topsail-yard came rattling down upon the deck. 

Immediately after, the cruiser ranged up along- 
side, and the order to heave-to was repeated with 
a threat that was calculated to cause the hair of a 
man of peace to stand on end. The effect on Cap- 
tain Dunning was to induce him to give the 
order — 

“ Point the guns there, lads, and aim high ; I 
don^t like to draw first blood — even of a pirate.” 

“ Ship ahoy ! Who are you, and where from ? ” 
inquired Captain Dunning, through the speaking* 
trumpet. 

“ Her British Majesty’s frigate Firebrand. K 


THE MISTAKE. 


22 \ 


fou don’t heave-to, sir, instantly, I’ll give you a 
broadside. Who are you, and where bound ? ” 
Whew ! ” whistled Captain Dunning, to vent 
his feelings of surprise ere he replied, “ The Red 
Eric, South Sea whaler, outward bound.” 

Having given this piece of information, he or- 
dered the topsails to be backed and the ship was 
hove to. Meanwhile a boat was lowered from 
the cruiser, and the captain thereof speedily 
leaped upon the whaler’s quarter-deck. 

The explanation that followed was not by any 
means calculated to allay the irritation of the 
British captain. He had made quite sure that 
the Red Eric was the slaver of which he was in 
search, and the discovery of his mistake induced 
him to make several rather severe remarks in ref- 
erence to the crew of the Red Eric generally and 
her commander in particular. 

“ Why didn’t you heave-to when I ordered you,” 
he said, “ and so save aU this trouble and worry?” 

“Because,” replied Captain Dunning, drily, 
“ I’m not in the habit of obeying orders until I 
know that he who gives them has a right to do 
so. But ’tis a pity to waste time talking 
about such trifles when the craft you are in 
search of is not very far away at this moment.” 

“ What mean you, sir ? ” inquired the captain 
of the cruiser, quickly. 

“ I mean that yonder vessel, scarcely visible now 
on the lee bow, is the slaver, in all likelihood ” 
19 * 


222 


THE RED ERIC. 


The captain gave but one hasty glance in the 
direction pointed to by Captain Dunning, and next 
moment he was over the side of the ship, and the 
boat was flying swiftly toward his vessel. The 
rapid orders given on board the cruiser soon after, 
showed that her commander was eagerly in pur- 
suit of the strange vessel ahead, and the flash and 
report of a couple of guns, proved that he was again 
giving orders in his somewhat peremptory style. 

When daylight appeared. Captain Dunning was 
still on deck, and Glynn Proctor stood by the 
wheel. The post of the latter, however, was a 
sinecure, as the wind had again fallen. When 
the sun rose, it revealed the three vessels lying 
becalmed within a short distance of each other 
and several miles off shore. 

“ So, so,” exclaimed the captain, taking the 
glass, and examining the other vessels. “ I • see 
it’s all up with the slaver. Serves him right; 
don’t it, Glynn ? ” 

“ It does,” replied Glynn, emphatically. “ I 
hope they will all be hanged. Isn’t that the usual 
way of serving these fellows out ? ” 

“ WeU, not exactly, lad. They don’t go quite 
that length — more’s the pity ; if they did, there 
would be less slave-trading ; but the rascals wiD 
ose both ship and cargo.” 

“ I wonder,” said Glynn, “ how they can afford 
to carry on the trade, when they lose so many 
Bhips as I am told they do every year.” 

‘‘ You wouldn’t wonder, boy, if you knew the 


THE MISTAKE. 


22S 


enormous prices got for slaves. Why, the profits 
on one cargo, safely delivered, will more than 
cover the loss of several vessels and cargoes. You 
may depend on’t, they would not carry it on if it 
did not pay.” 

“ Humph ! ” ejaculated Glynn, giving the wheel 
a savage turn, as if to express his thorough disap- 
probation of the slave-trade, and his extreme dis- 
gust at not being able, by the strength of his own 
right arm, at once to repress it. “ And who’s to 
pay for our foretopsail-yard ? ” he inquired ab- 
ruptly, as if desirous of changing the subject. 

“ Ourselves, I fear,” replied the captain. “We 
must take it philosophically, and comfort ourselves 
with the fact that it is the foretopsaU-yard, and not 
the bowsprit or the mainmast, that was carried 
away. It’s not likely the captain of the cruiser 
will pay for it, at any rate.” 

Captain Dunning was wrong. That same morn- 
ing he received a polite note from the commander 
of the said cruiser, requesting the pleasure of his 
company to dinner, in the event of the calm con- 
tinuing, and assuring him that the carpenter and 
sailmaker of the man-of-war should be sent dn 
board his ship after breakfast to repair damages. 
Captain Dunning, therefore, like an honest straight- 
forward man as he was, admitted that he had been 
hasty in his judgment, and stated to Glynn Proc- 
tor, emphatically, that the commander of the 
brand was “ a trump.” 


224 


THE RED ERIC. 


CHAPTER XV. 

New Scenes- — A Fight prevented by a Whale. — A Storm. — Blown 
ofl' the Yardarm. — Wreck of “ The Red Eric.” 

Five weeks passed away, and really, when one 
comes to consider the matter, it is surprising what 
a variety of events may be compressed into five 
weeks ; what an amount of space may be passed 
over ; what an immense change of scene and cir- 
cumstance may be experienced in that compara- 
tively short period of time. 

Men and women who remain quietly at home 
do not, perhaps, fully realize this fact. Five weeks 
to them does not usually seem either very long 
or very short. But let those quiet ones travel ; let 
them rush away headlong, by the aid of wind and 
steam to the distant and wonderful parts of this 
wonderful world of ours, and, ten to one, they will 
afterwards tell you that the most wonderful dis- 
covery they have made during their travels, is the 
fact that a miniature lifetime (apparently) can be 
compressed into five weeks. 

Five weeks passed away, and in the course of 
that time, the foretopsail-yard of the Red Eric had 
been repaired ; the Red Eric herself had passed 
from equatorial into southern seas; Ailie Dunning 
had become very sea-sick, which caused her to look 


MEDUSA. 


225 


ancommonly green in the face, and had got well 
again, which caused her to become fresh and rosy 
as the early morning ; Jacko had thoroughly es- 
tablished his reputation as the most arrant and 
accomplished thief that ever went to sea ; King 
Bumble had been maligned and abused again and 
again, and over again, despite his protestations of 
innocence, by grim-faced Tarquin,the steward, for 
having done the deeds which were afterwards dis- 
covered to have been committed by Jacko : fat 
little Gurney had sung innumerable songs of his 
own composing, in which he was ably supported by 
Glynn Proctor ; Dr. Hopley had examined, phren- 
ologically, all the heads on board, with the excep- 
tion of that of Tarquin, who would not submit to 
the operation on any account, and had shot, and 
skinned, and stuffed a variety of curious sea-birds, 
and caught a number of remarkable sea-fish, and 
had microscopically examined — to the immense 
interest of Ailie, and consequently of the captain — 
a great many surprising animalcules, called Me~ 
dusce^ which possessed the most watery and the 
thinnest possible bodies, yet which had the power 
of emitting a beautiful phosphoric light at night, 
so as to cause the whole ocean sometimes to glow 
as if with liquid fire ; Phil Briant had cracked more 
iokes, good, bad, and indifferent, than would serve 
to fill a whole volume of closely-printed pages, and 
had told more stories than would be believed by 
most people ; Tim Rokens and the other har- 


226 


THE KED ERIC. 


pooners had, with the assistance of the various 
boats’ crews, slain and captured several large 
whales, and Nikel Sling had prepared, and a^s- 
sisted to consume, as many breakfasts, dinners, 
and suppers, as there are days in the period of 
time above referred to; — in short, those five 
weeks, which we thus dismiss in five minutes, 
might, if enlarged upon, be expanded into mate- 
rial to fill five volumes such as this, which would 
probably take about five years to write — another 
reason for cutting this matter short. All this 
shows how much may be compressed into little 
space, how much may be done and seen in little 
time, and, therefore, how much value men ought 
to attach to little things. 

Five weeks passed away, as we have already 
remarked, and at the end of that time the Red 
Eric found herself, one beautiful sunny afternoon, 
becalmed on the breast of the wide ocean with a 
strange vessel, also a whaler, a few miles distant 
from her, and a couple of sperm-whales sporting 
playfully about midway between the two ships. 
Jim Scroggles on that particular afternoon found 
himself in the crow’s-nest at the mast-head, roar- 
ing “ Thar she blows ! ” with a degree of energy 
so appalling that one was almost tempted to be- 
lieve that that long-legged individual had made 
up his mind to compress his life into one grand 
but brief minute, and totally exhaust his powers 
of soul and body in the reiterated vociferation of 


WHALES IN SIGHT. 


227 


that one faculty of the sperm-whale. Allowance 
must be made for Jim, seeing that this was the 
first time he had been fortunate enough to “ raise 
the oil ” since he became a whaler. 

The usual scene of bustle and excitement im- 
mediately ensued. The men sprang to their ap- 
pointed places in a moment ; the tubs, harpoons, 
etc., were got ready, and in a few minutes the 
three boats were leaping over the smooth swell 
toward the fish. 

While this was taking place on board the Red 
Eric, a precisely similar scene occurred on board 
the other whale-ship, and a race now ensued be- 
tween the boats of the two ships, for each knew 
well that the first boat that harpooned either of 
the whales claimed it. 

“ Give way, my lads,’^ whispered Captain 
Dunning, eagerly, as he watched the other boats, 
“ we shall be first — we shall be first ; only bend 
your backs.” 

The men needed not to be urged ; they were 
quite as anxious as their commander to win the 
race, and bent their backs, as he expressed it, 
until the oars seemed about to break. Glynn sat 
on the after thwart, and did good service on this 
occasion. 

It soon became evident that the affair would 
be decided by the boats of the two captains, both 
of which took the lead of the others, but as they 
were advancing in opposite directions it was dif- 


228 


TjB[£! Il£)D £]IiIC« 


ficult to tell which was the fleeter of the two. 
When the excitement of the race was at its 
height the whales went down, and the men lay 
on their oars to wait until they should rise again. 
They lay in anxious suspense for about a min- 
ute, when the crew of Captain Dunning’s boat 
were startled by the sudden apparition of a wa- 
terspout close to them by which they were com- 
pletely drenched. It was immediately followed 
by the appearance of the huge blunt head of one 
of the whales which rose like an enormous rock 
out of the sea close to the starboard-quarter. 

The sight was received with a loud shout, and 
Tim Rokens leaped up and grasped a harpoon, 
but the whale sheered off. A spare harpoon lay 
on the stern-sheets close to Glynn, who dropped 
his oar and seized it. Almost without knowing 
what he was about, he hurled it with tremendous 
force at the monster’s neck, into which it pene- 
trated deeply. The harpooii* fortunately hap- 
pened to be attached to a large buoy, called by 
whalers a drog, which was jerked out of the boat 
like a cannon-shot as the whale went down, car- 
rying harpoon and drog along with it. 

“ Well done, lad,” cried the captain, in great 
delight, “ you’ve made a noble beginning ! Now, 
lads, pull gently ahead, she won’t go far with 
such an ornament as that dangling at her neck. 
A capital dart ! couldn’t have done it half so well 
myself, even in my young days ! ” 


THE DISPUTE. 


229 


Glynn felt somewhat elated at this unexpected 
piece of success ; to do him justice, however, he 
took it modestly. In a few minutes the whale 
rose, but it had changed its course while under 
^ater, and now appeared close to the leading 
boat of the other ship. 

By the laws of the whale fishery, no boat of 
one vessel has a right to touch a whale that has 
been struck by the boat of another vessel, so 
long as the harpoon holds fast and the rope re- 
mains unbroken, or so long as the float to which 
the harpoon is connected remains attached. 
Nevertheless, in defiance of this well-known law, 
the boat belonging to the captain of the strange 
ship gave chase, and succeeded in making fast to 
the whale. 

To describe the indignation of Captain Dun- 
ning and his men on witnessing this act is im- 
possible. The former roared rather than shouted, 
“ Give way, lads! ’’ and the latter bent their backs 
as if they meant to puU the boat bodily out of 
the water and up into the atmosphere. Mean- 
while aU the other boats were in hot pursuit of 
the second whale, which had led them a consid- 
erable distance away from the first. 

“ What do you mean by striking that fish? 
shouted Captain Dunning, when, after a hard 
pull, he came up to the boat, the crew of which 
had just succeeded in thrusting a lance deep into 
20 


230 


THE RED ERIC. 


a mortal part of the huge animal, which soon 
after rolled over and lay extended on the waves. 

“ What right have you to ask ? ’’ replied the cap- 
tain of the strange ship, an ill-favored, powerful 
man, whose countenance was sufficient to con- 
demn him in any society, save that of ruffians. 
“ Don’t you see your drog has broke loose ? ” 

‘‘ I see nothing of the sort. It’s fast at this 
moment ; so you’ll be good enough to cut loose, 
and take yourself off as fast as you please.” 

To this the other made no reply, but, turning 
to his men, said : “ Make fast there, lads , signal 
the other boats, and pull away for the ship ; look 
sharp, you lubbers.” 

“ Och I captain, dear,” muttered Phil Briant, 
baring both his arms up to the shoulders, “ only 
give the word ; do now ! ” 

Captain Dunning, who was already boiling 
with rage, needed no encouragement to make an 
immediate attack on the stranger, neither did his 
men require an order; they plunged their oars 
into the water, ran right into the other boat, sprang 
to their feet, seized lances, harpoons, and knives, 
and in another moment would have been engaged 
in a deadly struggle had not an unforeseen event 
occurred to prevent the fray. This was the partial 
recovery of the whale, which, apparently resolved 
to make one final struggle for life, turned over 
and over, lashed the sea into foam, and churned 
it up with the blood which spouted in thick 
streams from its numerous wounds. 


RESCUE FROM A WATERY GRAVE. 231 


Both boats were in imminent danger, and the 
men sprang to their oars in order to pull out of 
the range of the monster’s dying struggles. In 
this effort the strange boat was successful, but 
that of Captain Dunning fared ill. A heavy blow 
from the whale’s tail broke it in two, and hurled 
it into the air, whence the crew descended, amid 
a mass of harpoons, lances, oars, and cordage,- 
into the blood-stained water. 

The fish sheered away for some distance, drag- 
ging the other boat along with it, and then rolled 
over quite dead. Fortunately not one of the crew 
of the capsized boat was hurt. All of them suc- 
eeded in reaching and clinging to the shattered 
hull of their boat ; but there they were destined to 
remain a considerable time, as the boat of the 
stranger, having secured the dead fish, proceeded 
leisurely to tow it toward their ship, without pay- 
ing the slightest attention to the shouts of their 
late enemies. 

A change had now come over the face of the 
sky. Clouds began to gather on the horizon, and 
a few light puffs of air swept over the sea, which 
enabled the strange vessel to bear down on her 
boat, and take the whale in tow. It also enabled 
the Red Eric to beat up, but more slowly, toward 
the spot where their disabled boat lay, and rescue 
their comrades from their awkward position. It 
was some time before the boats were all gathered 
together. When this tvas accomplished the night 


232 


THE RED ERIC. 


had set in and the stranger had made off with 
her ill-gotten prize, the other whale having 
sounded, and the chase been abandoned. 

“ Now, of all the disgustin’ things that ever 
happened to me, this is the worst,” remarked 
Captain Dunning, in a very sulky tone of voice, 
as he descended to the cabin to change his gar- 
ments, Aihe having preceded him in order to lay 
out dry clothes. 

Oh ! my darling papa, what a fright I got,” 
she exclaimed, running up and hugging him, wet 
as he was, for the seventh time, despite his efforts 
to keep her off. “ I was looking through the spy- 
glass at the time it happened, and when I saw 
you all thrown into the air I cried — oh I I can’t 
tell you how I cried.” 

“ You don’t need to tell me, Ailie, my pet, for 
your red, sweUed-up eyes speak for themselves. 
But go, you puss, and change your own frock. 
You’ve made it as wet as my coat, nearly ; besides, 
I can’t undress, you know, while you stand there.” 

Ailie said, “ I’m so very, very thankful,” and 
then giving her father one concluding hug, which 
completely saturated the frock, went to her own 
cabin. 

Meanwhile the crew of the captain’s boat were 
busy in the forecastle stripping off their wet gar- 
ments, and relating their adventures to the men of 
the other boats, who, until they reached the ship, 
had been utterly ignorant of what had passed. 


GLTNirS GREAT LOSS. 


233 


It is curious that Tim Rokens should open the 
conversation with much the same sentiment, if 
not exactly the same phrase, as that expressed 
by the captain. 

“ Now, boys,” said he, slapping his wet limbs, 
“ I’ll tell ye wot it is, of all the aggrawations as 
has happened to me in my life, this is out o 
sight the wust. To think o’ losin’ that there 
whale, the very biggest I ever saw ” 

“ Ah ! Rokens, man,” interrupted Glynn, as he 
puUed off his jacket, “ the loss is greater to me 
than to you, for it was my first whale ! ” 

“ True, boy,” replied the harpooner, in a tone 
of evidently genuine sympathy ; “ I feel for ye. 
I knows how I should ha’ taken on if it had hap- 
pened to me. But cheer up, lad ; you know the 
old proverb, ‘ There’s as good a fish in the sea 
as ever came out o’t.’ You’U be the death o’ 
many sich yet. I’ll bet my best iron.” 

“ Sure, the wust of it all is, that we don’t know 
who was the big thief as got that^sh away with 
him,” said Phil Briant, with a rueful counte- 
nance. 

“ Don’t we, though ! ” cried Gurney, who had 
Deen in the mate’s boat; “ I axed one o’ the men 
o’ the stranger’s boats — for we run up close along- 
side durin’ the chase — and he told me as how she 
was the Termagant of New York ; so we can be 
down on ’em yet, if we live long enough.” 


234 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Humph ! ” observed Rokens ; “ and d’ye sup* 
pose he’d give ye the right name ? ” 

“ He’d no reason to do otherwise. He didn’t 
know of the dispute between the other boats.” 

“ There’s truth in that,” remarked Glynn, as he 
prepared to go on deck ; “but it may be a year or 
more before we foregather. No, I give up all 
claim to my first fish from this date.” 

“ All hands ahoy I ” shouted the mate ; “ tum- 
ble up Ihere ! Reef topsails ! Look alive ! ” 

The men ran hastily on deck, completing their 
buttoning and belting as they went, and found that 
something very like a storm was brewing. As yet, 
the breeze was moderate, and the sea not very 
high, but the night was pitchy dark, and a hot 
oppressive atmosphere boded no improvement in 
the weather. 

“ Lay out there, some of you, and close reef 
the topsails,” cried the mate, as the men ran to 
their several posts. 

The ship was*running at the time under a com- 
paratively small amount of canvas ; for, as their 
object was merely to cruise about in those seas in 
search of whales, and they had no particular course 
to steer, it was usual to run at night under easy 
sail, and sometimes to lay-to. It was fortunate 
that such was the case on the present occasion ; 
for it happened that the storm which was about to 
burst on them, came with appalling suddenness 
and fury. The wind tore up the sea as if it had 


SUDDENNESS OF THE STORM. 


235 


been a mass of white feathers, and scattered it high 
in air. The inizen-topsail was blown to ribbons, 
and it seemed as if the other sails were about to 
share the same fate. The ship flew from billow to 
billow, after recovering from the first rude shock, 
as if she were but a dark cloud on the sea, and 
the spray flew high over her masts, drenching the 
men on the topsail-yards while they labored to 
reef the sails. 

“We shall have to take down these t’gallant 
masts, Mr. Millons,” said the captain, as he stood 
by the weather-bulwarks holding on to a belay- 
ing-pin, to prevent his being washed away. 

“ Shall I give the order, sir? inquired the first 
mate. 

“ You may,” replied the captain. 

Just as the mate turned to obey, a shriek was 
heard high above the whistling of the fierce wind. 

“ Did you hear that ? ” said the captain, anxiously. 

“ I did,” replied the mate. “ I fear — I trust — ” 

The remainder of the sentence was either sup- 
pressed, or the howling of the wind prevented its 
being heard. 

Just then a flash of lightning lit up the scene, 
and a terrific crash of thunder seemed to rend the 
sky. The flash was momentary, but it served to 
reveal the men on the yards distinctly. They had 
succeeded in close-reeffing the topsails, and were 
hurrying down the rigging. The mate came close 
to the captain’s side, and said, “ Did you see, sir 


236 


THE RED ERIC. 


the way them men on the mainyard were scram 
blin’ down ? ” 

The captain had not time to reply ere a shout, 
“ Man overboard ! ” was heard faintly in the midst 
of the storm, and in another instant some of the 
men rushed aft with frantic haste, shouting that 
one of their number had been blown off the yard 
into the sea. 

“ Down your helm,” roared the captain ; ‘‘ stand 
by to lower away the boats.” 

The usual prompt “ Ay, ay, sir,” was given, but 
before the men could reach their places, a heavy 
sea struck the vessel amidships, poured several 
tons of water on the decks, and washed all the 
loose gear overboard. 

“ Let her away,” cried the captain, quickly. 

The steersman obeyed ; the ship fell off, and 
again bounded on her mad course like a wild horse 
set free. 

“ It’s of no use, sir,” said the mate, as the cap- 
tain leaped toward the wheel, which the other had 
already gained ; “ no boat could live in that sea 
for a moment. The poor fellow’s gone by this 
time. He must be more than half a mile astern 
already.” 

“ I know it,” returned the captain, in a deep, 
sad tone. “ Get these masts down, Mr. Millons, 
and see that every thing is made fast. Who is 
it, did you say ? ” 

“ The men can’t tell, sir ; one of em’ told me ’e 


ALIE ON DECK. 


237 


thinks it was young Boswell. It was too dark, 
to see ’is face, but ’is figui-e was that of a stout 
young fellow.” 

“ A stout young fellow,” muttered the captain, 
as the mate hurried forward. “ Can it have been 
Glynn ? ” His heart sank within him at the 
thought, and he would have given worlds at that 
moment, had he possessed them, to have heard 
the voice of our hero, whom, almost unwittingly, 
he had begun to love with all the affection of a 
father. While he stood gazing up at the rigging, 
attempting to pierce the thick darkness, he felt 
his sleeve plucked, and, looking down, observed 
Ailie at his side. 

“ My child,” he cried, grasping her by the arm 
convulsively, “ you here ! How came you to leave 
your cabin, dear ? Go down, go down ; you don’t 
know the danger you run. Stay — I will help 
you. If one of those seas comes on board, it would 
carry you overboard like a fleck of foam.” 

“ I didn’t know there was much danger, papa. 
Glynn told me there wasn’t,” she replied, as her 
father sprang with her to the companion-ladder. 

“ How ! when ! where ! child ? Did Glynn 
speak to you within the last ten luinutes ? ” 

“ Yes ; he looked down the hatch just as I was 
coming up, and told me not to be afraid, and said 
I must go below, and not think of coming on deck ; 
but I heard a shriek, papa, and feared something 
had happened, so I came to ask what it was. I 
hope no one is hurt.” 


238 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ My darling Ailie,” replied the captain in an 
agitated voice, “ go down to your berth, and pray 
for us just now. Tht^e is not much danger ; but 
in all times of danger, whether great or slight, we 
should pray to Our Father in Heaven, for we never 
know what a day or an hour may bring forth. I 
will speak to you about every thing to-morrow ; 
to-night I must be on deck.” 

He kissed her forehead, pushed her gently into 
the cabin, shut the door, and, coming on deck, 
fastened the companion-hatch firmly down. 

In a short time the ship was prepared to face 
the worst. The top-sails were close reefed ; the 
top-gallant-masts sent down on deck ; the spanker 
and jib were furled, and soon after the mainsail 
and foresail were also furled. The boats were 
taken in and secured on deck, and the ship went 
a little more easily through the raging sea ; but 
as the violence of the gale increased, sail had to 
be further reduced, and at last every thing was 
taken in except the main spencer and foretop- 
mast staysail. 

“ I wouldn’t mind this much,” said the captain, 
as he and the first mate stood close to the binna- 
cle, “ if I only knew our exact position. But 
we’ve not had an observation for several days, 
and I don’t feel sure of our whereabouts. There 
are some nasty coral reefs in these -seas. Did 
you find out who the poor fellow is yet ? ” 

“ It’s young BosweU, I fear. Mr. Markham is 
mustering the men just now, sir.” 


FIERCENESS OP THE STORM. 


239 


As he spoke, the second mate c?,me aft and 
confirmed their fears. The man who had thus 
been summoned in a moment, without warning, 
into the presence of his Maker, had been a quiet, 
modest youth, and a favorite wi th every one on 
board. At any other time his death would have 
been deeply felt ; but in the midst of that terrible 
storm the men had no time to think. Indeed, 
they could not realize the fact that their shipmate 
was really gone. 

“ Mr. Markham,” said the captain, as the second 
mate turned away, “ send a hand into the chains 
to heave the lead. I don’t feel at all easy in my 
mind, so near these shoals as we must be jusi 
now.” 

While the order was being obeyed, the storm 
became fiercer and more furious. Bright gleams 
of lightning flashed repeatedly across the sky, 
lighting up the scene as if with brightest moon- 
light, and revealing the horrid turmoil of the 
raging sea in which the ship now labored heavily. 
The rapidity with which the thunder followed 
the lightning showed how near to them was the 
dangerous and subtle fluid ; and the crashing, 
bursting reports that shook the ship from stem to 
stern gave the impression that mountains were 
being dashed to atoms against each other in the 
air. 

All the sails still exposed to the fury of the gale 
were blown to shreds ; the foretopmast and the 


240 


THE BED ERIC. 


jib-boom were carried away along with them, and 
the Red Eric was driven at last before the wind 
under bare poles. The crew remained firm in the 
midst of this awful scene ; each man stood at his 
post, holding on by any fixed object that chanced 
to be within his reach, and held himself ready to 
spring to obey every order. No voice could be 
heard in the midst of the howling winds, the lash- 
ing sea, and the rending sky. Commands^ were 
given by signs, as well as possible, during the 
flashes of lightning; but little or nothing re- 
mained to be done. Captain Dunning had done 
all that a man thoroughly acquainted with his 
duties could accomplish to put his ship in the best 
condition to do battle with the storm, and he now 
felt that the issue remained in the hands of Him 
who formed the warring elements, and whose 
will alone could check their angry strife. 

During one of the vivid flashes of lightning the 
captain observed Glynn Proctor standing near the 
starboard gangway, and, waiting for the next 
flash, he made a signal to him to come to the spot 
where he stood. Glynn understood it, and in a 
few seconds was at his commander’s side. 

“ Glynn, my boy,” said the latter, you won’t 
be wanted on deck for some time. There’s little 
to be done now. Go down and see what Ailie’s 
about, poor thing. She’ll need a little comfort. 
Say I sent you.” 

Without other reply than a nod of the head, 


1 


GLYNN SENT TO COMEOKT AILIE. 


241 


Glynn sprang to the companion-hatch, followed 
by the captain, who undid the fastenings to let 
him down and refastened them immediately, for 
the sea was washing over the stern continually. 

Glynn found the child on her knees in the cabin 
with her face buried in the cushions of one of the 
sofas. He sat down beside her and waited until 
she should have finished her prayer; but as she did 
not move for some time he laid his hand gently on 
her shoulder. She looked up with a happy smile 
on her face. 

“ Oh! Glynn, is that you? Pm so glad,” she 
said, rising, and sitting down beside him. 

“ Your father sent me down to comfort you, my 
pet,” said Glynn, taldng her hand in his and draw- 
ing her toward him. 

“ I have got comfort already,” replied the child; 

Pm so very happy now.” 

“ How so, Ailie ? who has been with you ? ” 

“ God has been with me. You told me, Glynn, 
that there wasn’t much danger, but I felt sure that 
there was. Oh ! I never heard such terrible noises, 
and this dreadful tossing is worse than ever I felt 
it — a great deal. So I went down on my knees 
and prayed that God, for Christ’s sake, would save 
us. I felt very frightened, Glynn. You can’t 
think how my heart beat every time the thunder 
burst over us. But suddenly — I don’t know how 
it was — the words I used to read at home so often 
with my dear aunts came into my mind ; you know 
21 


242 


THE RED ERIC. 


them, G .ynn,‘ Call upon me in the time of trouble, 
and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.’ 
I don’t know where I read them. I forget the 
place in the Bible now ; but when I thought of 
them I felt much less frightened. Do you think 
it was the Holy Spirit who put them into my 
mind ? My aunts used to tell me that all good 
thoughts were given to me by the Holy Spirit. 
Then I remembered the words of Jesus, ‘ I will 
never leave thee nor forsake thee,’ and I felt so 
happy after that. It was just before you came 
down. I think we shall not be lost. C^od would 
not make me feel so happy if we were going to be 
lost, would he ? ” 

“ I think not, Ailie,” replied Glynn, whose con- 
science reproached him for his ignorance of the 
passages in God’s word referred to, by his com- 
panion, and who felt that he was receiving rather 
than administering comfort. “ When I came 
down I did not very well know how I should com- 
fort you, for this is certainly the most tremendous 
gale I ever saw, but somehow I feel as if we were 
in less danger now. I wish I knew more of the Bible, 
Ailie. I’m ashamed to say I seldom look at it.’* 

“ Oh, that’s a pity, isn’t it, Glynn ? ” said Ailie, 
with earnest concern expressed in her counte- 
nance, for she regarded her companion’s ignorance 
as a great misfortune ; it never occurred to hex 
that it was a sin. « But it’s very easy to learn it,” 
she added, with an eager look, “ K you come to 


THE VESSEL ASHOKE. 


243 


me here every day we can read it together. I 
would like to have you to hear me say it off, and 
then I would hear you.’’ 

Before he could reply the vessel received a tre- 
mendous shock which caused her to quiver from 
stem to stern. 

“ She must have been struck by lightning,” 
cried Glynn, starting up and hurrying toward the 
door. Ailie’s frightened look returned for a few 
minutes, but she did not tremble as she had done 
before. 

Just as Glynn reached the top of the ladder the 
hatch was opened and the captain thrust in his 
head. 

“ Glyun, my boy,” said he‘, in a quick, firm tone, 
“ we are ashore. Perhaps we shall go to pieces 
in a few minutes. God knows. May He in his 
mercy spare us. You cannot do much on deck. 
Ailie must be looked after tUl I come down for 
her. Glynn, I depend upon you.^^ 

These words were uttered hurriedly, and the 
hatch was shut immediately after. It is impossi- 
ble to describe accurately the conflicting feelings 
that agitated the breast of the young sailor as he 
descended again to the cabin. He felt gratified 
at the trust placed in him by the captain, and his 
love for the little girl would at any time have 
made the post of protector to her an agreeable 
one ; but the idea that the ship had struck the 
rocks, and that his shipmates on deck were strug- 


244 


THE RED ERIC. 


gling perhaps for their lives while he was sitting 
idly in the cabin, was most trying and dis- 
tressing to one of his ardent and energetic tem- 
perament. He was not, however, kept long in 
suspense. 

Scarcely had he regained the cabin when the 
ship again struck with terrific violence, and he 
knew by the rending crash overhead that one or 
more of the masts had gone over the side. The 
ship at the same moment slewed round and was 
thrown on her beam-ends. So quickly did this 
occur that Glynn had barely time to seize Ailie 
in his arms and save her from being dashed 
against the bulkhead. 

The vessel rose again on the next wave, and was 
hurled on the rocks with such violence that every 
one on board expected her to go to pieces imme- 
diately. At the same time the cabin windows were 
dashed in, and the cabin itself was flooded with 
water. Glynn was washed twice across the cabin 
and thrown violently against the ship’s sides, but 
he succeeded in keeping a firm hold of his little 
charge and in protecting her from injury. 

“ Hallo, Glynn ! ” shouted the captain, as he 
opened the companion-hatch, “ come on deck, 
quick ! bring her with you I ” 

Glynn hurried up and placed the child in her 
father’s arms. 

The scene that presented itself to him on gaining 
the deck was indeed appalling. The first gray 


ON THE ROCKS. 


245 


Btreak of dawn faintly lighted up the sky, just 
affording sufficient light to exhibit the complete 
wreck of every thing on deck, and the black froth- 
capjied tumult of the surrounding billows. The 
rocks on which they had struck could not be dis- 
cerned in the gloom, but the white breakers ahead 
showed too clearly where they were. The three 
masts had gone over the side one after another, 
leaving only the stumps of each standing. Every 
thing above board — boats, binnacle, and part of the 
bulwarks — had been washed away. The crew 
were clinging to the belaying pins and to such 
parts of the wreck as seemed likely to hold to- 
gether longest. It seemed to poor Ailie, as she 
clung to her father’s neck, that she had been trans- 
ported to some far-distant and dreadful scene, for 
scarcely a single familiar object remained by which 
her pcean home, the Red Eric, could be recognized. 

But Ailie had neither desire nor opportunity to 
remark on this tremendous change. Every suc- 
cessive billow raised the doomed vessel, and let her 
faU with heavy violence on the rocks. Her stout 
frame trembled under each shock as if she were 
endued with life, and shrank affrighted from her 
impending fate ; and it was as much as the captain 
could do to maintain his hold of the weather bul- 
warks and of Ailie at the same time. Indeed, he 
could not have done it at aU had not Glynn stood 
by and assisted him to the best of his ability. 

“It wont last long, lad,” said the captain, as a 
21 * 


246 


THE RED ERIC. 


^aTger wave than usual lifted the shattered hull 
and dashed it down on the rocks, washing the deck 
from stern to stem, and for a few seconds burying 
the whole crew under water. “ May the Almighty 
have mercy on us ; no ship can stand this long.’^ 

“ Perhaps the tide is falling,” suggested Glynn, 
in an encouraging voice, “ and I think I see some- 
thing like a shore ahead. It will be daylight in 
half an hour or less.” 

The captain shook his head. “ There’s little 
or no tide here to rise or fall, I fear. Before half 
an hour we shall ” 

He did not finish the sentence, but looking at 
Ailie with a gaze of agony, he pressed her more 
closely to his breast. 

“ 1 think we shall be saved,” whispered the child, 
twining her arms more closely round her. father’s 
neck, and laying her wet cheek against his. 

Just then Tim Rokens crept aft, and said that 
he saw a low sandy island ahead, and a rocky 
point jutting out from it close to the bows of the 
ship. He suggested that a rope might be got 
ashore when it became a little lighter. 

Phil Briant came aft to make the same sugges- 
tion, not knowing that Rokens had preceded him. 
In fact, the men had been consulting as to the 
possibility of accomplishing this object, but when 
they looked at the fearful breakers that boiled 
in white foam between the ship’s bow and the 
rocky point, their hearts failed them, and no one 
Was found to volunteer for the dangerous service. 


ON THE ROCKS. 


247 


“ Is any one inclined to try it ? ” inquired the 
li^ptain. 

\ “ There’s niver a wan of us but ’ud try it, cap’en, 
if\ you gives the orderj'^ answered Briant. 

The captain hesitated. He felt disinclined to 
order any man to expose himself to such imminent 
danger ; yet the safety of the whole crew might 
depend on a rope being connected with the shore. 
Before he could make up his mind, Glynn, who 
saw what was passing in his mind, exclaimed - 

‘‘ I’ll do it, captain ; ” and instantly quitting his 
position, hurried forward as fast as circumstances 
ATould permit. 

The task which Glynn had undertaken to per- 
form turned out to be more dangerous and difficult 
than at first he had anticipated. When he stood 
at the lee bow, fastening a small cord round his 
waist, and looking at the turmoil of water into 
which he was about to plunge, his heart wellnigh 
failed him, and he felt a sensation of regret that he 
had undertaken what seemed now an impossibility. 
He did not wonder that the men had one and all 
shrunk from the attempt. But he had made up 
his mind to do it. Moreover, he had said he 
would do it, and feeling that he imperilled his 
life in a good cause, he set his face as a flint to 
the accomplishment of his purpose. 

Well was it for Glynn Proctor that day that 
in early boyhood he had learned to swim, and 
had become so expert in the water as to be able 
to beat aU his young companions ! 


248 


THE BED ERIC. 


He noticed, on looking narrowly at the foaming 
surge through which he must pass in order to gain 
the rocky point, that many of the submerged rocks 
showed their tops above the flood, like black spots, 
when each wave retired. To escape these seemed 
impossible — to strike one of them he knew would 
be almost certain death. 

“ Don’t try it, boy,” said several of the men, 
as they saw Glynn hesitate when about to spring, 
and turn an anxious gaze in all directions , “ it’s 
into death ye’ll jump, if ye do.” 

Glynn did not reply ; indeed, he did not hear 
the remark, for at that moment, his whole attention 
was riveted on a ledge of submerged rock, which 
ever and anon showed itself, like the edge of a 
knife, extending between the ship and the point. 
Along the edge of this, the retiring waves broke in 
such a manner as to form what appeared to be 
dead water — tossed, indeed, and foam clad, but not 
apparently in progressive motion. Glynn made up 
his mind in an instant, and just as the first mate 
came forward with an order from the captain that 
he was on no account to make the rash attempt, 
he sprang with his utmost force off the ship’s side 
and sank in the raging sea. 

Words cannot describe the intense feeling of sus- 
pense with which the men on the lee bow gazed at 
the noble-hearted boy as he rose and buffeted with 
the angry biUows. Every man held his breath, and 
those who had charge of the line stood nervously 
ready to haul him back at a moment’s notice. 


ON THE ROCKS. 


249 


On first rising to the surface, he beat the waves 
as if bewildered, and while some of the men cried, 

“ He’s struck a rock,” others shouted to haul him 
in ; but in another second he got his eyes cleared 
of spray, and seeing the ship’s hull towering above 
his head, he turned his back on it, and made for 
the shore. At first he went rapidly through the 
surge, for his arm was strong, and his young heart 
was brave ; but a receding wave caught him, and 
hurled him some distance out of his course — toss- 
ing him over and over as if he had been a cork. 
Again he recovered himself, and gaining the water 
beside the ledge, he made several powerful and 
rapid strokes, which carried him within a few yards 
of the point. 

“ He’s safe,” said Kokens, eagerly. 

“ No ; he’s missed it ! ” cried the second mate, 
who, with Gurney and Dick Barnes, payed out 
the rope. 

Glynn had indeed almost caught hold of the 
farthest out ledge of the point, when he was 
drawn back into the surge, and this time dashed 
against a rock, and partially stunned. The men 
had already begun to haul in on the rope when 
he recovered, and making a last effort, gained 
the rocks, up which he clambered slowly. When 
beyond the reach of the waves, he fell down as 
if he had fainted. 

This, however, was not the case ; he was merely 
exhausted, as well as confused, by the blows he 
had received on tb ^ rocks, and J ly for a few sec- 


250 


THE BED EEIC. 


onds quite still in order to recover strength, dur- 
ing which period of inaction, he thanked God 
earnestly for his deliverance, and prayed fervently 
that he might be made the means of saving his 
companions in danger. 

After a minute or two he rose, unfastened the 
line from his waist, and began to haul it ashore. 
To the other end of the small line, the men in the 
ship attached a thick cable, the end of which was 
soon pulled up, and made fast to a large rock. 

Tim Rokens was now ordered to proceed to the 
shore by means of the rope in order to test it. After 
this a sort of swing was constructed, with a noose 
which was passed round the cable. To this a small 
line was fastened, and passed to the shore. On this 
swinging-seat Ailie was seated, and hauled to the 
rocks, Tim Rokens “ shinning ” along the cable at 
the same time to guard her from accident. Then 
the men began to land, and thus, one by one, the 
crew of the Red Eric reached the shore in safety ; 
and when all had landed, Captain Dunning, stand- 
ing in the midst of his men, lifted up his voice in 
thanksgiving to God for their deliverance. 

But when daylight came, the full extent of their 
forlorn situation was revealed. The ship was a 
complete wreck ; the boats were all gone, and they 
found that the island on which they had been cast 
was only a few square yards in extent — a mere 
sandbank, utterly destitute of shrub or tree, and 
raised only a few feet above the level of the ocean. 


THE SANDBANK. 


251 


CHAPTER XVI. 

The Sandbank. - - The wrecked Crew make the best of bad 
circumstances. 


It wiU scarcely surprise the reader to be told that, 
after the first emotions of thankfulness for deliver- 
ance from what had appeared to the shipwrecked 
• mariners to be inevitable death, a feeling amount- 
ing almost to despair took possession of the whole 
party for a time. 

The sandbank was so low that in stormy 
weather it was almost submerged. It was a sol- 
itary coral-reef in the midst of the boundless sea. 
Not a tree or bush grew upon it, and except at 
the point where the ship had struck, there was 
scarcely a rock large enough to afford shelter to a 
single man. Without provisions, without sufficient 
shelter, without the means of escape, and almost 
without the hope of deliverance, it seemed to them 
that nothing awaited them but the slow lingering 
pains and horrors of death by starvation. 

As those facts forced themselves more and more 
powerfully home to the apprehension of the crew, 
while they cowered for shelter from the storm 
under the lee of the rocky point, they gave expres- 
sion to their feelings in different ways. Some sat 
down in dogged silence to await their fate ; others 


252 


THE RED ERIC. 


fell on their knees and cried aloud to God for 
mercy ; while a few kept up their own spirits and 
those of their companions by affecting a cheer- 
fuhiess which, however, in some cases, was a 
little forced. Ailie lay shivering in her father’s 
arms, for she was drenched with salt water and 
very cold. Her eyes were closed, and she was 
very pale from exposm*e and exhaustion, but her 
lips moved as if in prayer. 

Captain Dunning looked anxiously at Dr. Hop- 
ley, who crouched beside them, and gazed ear- ^ 
nestly in the child’s face while he felt her pulse. 

“ It’s almost too much for her, I fear,” said the 
captain, in a hesitating, husky voice. 

The doctor did not answer for a minute or 
two, then he said, as if muttering to himself 
rather than replying to the captain’s remark, “ If 
we could only get her into dry clothes, or had a 

fire, or even a little brandy, but ” He did 

not finish the sentence, and the captain’s heart 
sank within him, and his weatherbeaten face 
grew pale as he thought of the possibility of los- 
ing his darling child. 

Glynn had been watching the doctor with in- 
tense eagerness, and with a terrible feeling of 
dread fluttering about his heart. When he 
heard the last remark he leaped up and cried — 

“ If brandy is all you want you shall soon have 
it.” 

And running down to the edge of the water, he 


THE SANDBANK. 


253 


plunged in and grasped the cable, intending to 
clamber into the ship, which had by this time been 
driven higher on the rocks, and did not suffer so 
much from the violence of the breakers. At the 
same instant Phil Briant sprang to his feet, rushed 
down after him, and before he had got a yard 
from the shore, seized him by the collar, and drag- 
ged him out of the sea high and dry on the land. 

Glynn was so exasperated at this unceremo- 
nious, and at the moment unaccountable treat- 
ment, that he leaped up, and in the heat of the 
moment prepared to deal the Irishman a blow 
that would very probably have brought the expe- 
riences of the “ ring” to his remembrance ; but 
Briant effectually checked him by putting both 
his own hands into his pockets, thrusting fo^-ward 
his face as if to invite the blow, and exclaiming — 
Och ! now, hit fair, Glynn, darlint ; put it 
right in betwane me two eyes ! ” 

Glynn laughed hysterically, in spite of himself. 

“ What mean you by stopping me ? ” he asked, 
somewhat sternly. 

“ Shure, I mane that I’ll go for the grog me- 
self. Ye’ve done more nor yer share o’ the work 
this mornin’, an’ it’s but fair to give a poor fel- 
low a chance. More betoken, ye mustn’t think 
that nobody can’t do nothin’ but yerself. It’s 
Phil Briant that’ll shin up a rope with any white 
man in the world, or out of it.” 

“ You’re right, Phil,” said Rokens, who had 


254 


THE BED ERIC. 


come to separate the combatants. “ Go aboord, 
my lad, an’ I’ll engage to hold this here young 
alligator fast tiU ye come back.” 

“ You don’t need to hold me, Tim,” retorted 
Glynn with a smile; but don’t be long about 
it, Phil. You know where the brandy is kept 
— look alive.” 

Briant accomplished his mission successfully, 
and, despite the furious waves, brought the 
brandy on shore in safety. As he emerged like 
a caricature of old Neptune dripping from th( sea, 
it was observed that he held a bundle in his pow- 
erful grasp. It was also strapped to his shoulders. 

“ Why, what have you got there ? ” inquired 
the doctor, as he staggered under the shelter of 
the rocks. 

“ Arrah ! give a dhrop to the child, an’ don’t be 
wastin’ yer breath,” replied Briant, as he undid the 
bundle. “ Sure I’ve brought a few trifles for her 
outside as well as her in.” And he revealed to the 
glad father a bundle of warm habiliments which 
he had collected in Ailie’s cabin, and kept dry by 
wrapping them in several layers of tarpaulin. 

God bless you, my man,” said the captain, 
grasping the thoughtful Irishman by the hand. 
“ Now, Ailie, my darling pet, look up, and swal- 
low a drop o’ this. Here’s a capital rig out o’ 
dry clothes too. 

A few sips of brandy soon restored the circula- 
tion which had wellnigh been arrested, and when 


TUB SANDBANK. 


255 


she had been clothed in the dry garments, Ailie 
felt comparatively comfortable, and expressed her 
thanks to Phil Briant with tears in her eyes. 

A calm often succeeds a storm somewhat sud- 
denly, especially in southern latitudes. Soon after 
daybreak the wind moderated, and before noon it 
ceased entirely, though the sea kept breaking in 
huge rolling billows on the sandbank for many 
hours afterwards. The sun, too, came out hot and 
brilliant, shedding a warm radiance over the little 
sea-girt spot as well as over the hearts of the crew. 

Human nature exhibits wonderful and sudden 
changes. Men spring from the depths of despair 
to the very summit of light-hearted hope, and very 
frequently, too, without a very obvious cause to 
account for the violent change. Before the day 
after the storm was far advanced, every one on the 
sandbank seemed to be as joyous as though there 
was no danger of starvation whatever. There 
was, however, sufficient to produce the change in 
the altered aspect of affairs. For one thing, the 
warm' sun began to make them feel comfortable 
' — and really it is wonderful how ready men are 
to shut their eyes to the actual state of existing 
things if they can only enjoy a little present com- 
fort. Then the ship was driven so high on the 
rocks as to be almost beyond the reach of the 
waves, and she had not been dashed to pieces, as 
had at first been deemed inevitable, so that the 
stores and provisions in her might be securedi 


256 


THE RED ERIC. 


and the party be thus enabled to subsist on theii 
ocean prison until set free by son e passing ship. 

Under the happy influence of these improved 
circumstances ever}^ one went about the work of 
rendering their island home more comfortable, in 
good, almost in gleeful spirits. Phil Briant in- 
dulged in jests which a few hours ago would have 
been deemed profane, and Gurney actually volun- 
teered the song of the “ man wot got his nose 
froze ; ” but every one declined to listen to it, on the 
plea that it reminded them too forcibly of the cold 
of the early morning. Even the saturnine steward, 
Tarquin, looked less ferocious than usual, and King 
Bumble became so loquacious that he was ordered 
more than once to hold his tongue and to shut up.’^ 

The work they had to do was indeed of no light 
nature. They had to travel to and fro between the 
ship and the rocks on the rope-cable, a somewhat 
laborious achievement, in order to bring ashore 
such things as they absolutely required. A quan- 
tity of biscuit, tea, cofiee, and sugar were landed 
without receiving much damage, then a line was 
fastened to a cask of salt-beef, and this, with a few 
more provisions, were drawn ashore the first day, 
and placed under the shelter of the largest rock 
on the point. On the following day, it was re- 
solved that a raft should be constructed, and every 
thing that could in any way prove useful be brought 
to the sandbank and secured. For Captain Dun- 
ning weU knew that another storm might arise as 


JACKO’S ANXIETY AS TO IHS FATE. 


257 


quickly as the former had done, and although the 
ship at present lay in comparatively quiet water, 
the huge billows that would be dashed against her 
in such circumstances would be certain to break 
her up and scatter her cargo on the breast of the 
all-devouring sea. 

In the midst of all this activity and bustle there 
sat one useless and silent, but exceedingly grave 
and uncommonly attentive spectator, namely, 
Jacko, the monkey. That sly and sagacious indi- 
vidual, seeing that no one intended to look after 
him, had during the whole of the recent storm 
wisely looked after himself. He had ensconced 
himself in a snug and comparatively sheltered 
corner under the after-part of the weather bul- 
warks. But when he saw the men one by one 
leaving the ship, and proceeding to the shore by 
means of the rope, he began to evince an anxiety 
as to his own fate which had in it something ab- 
solutely human. Jacko was the last man, so to 
speak, to leave the Bed Eric. Captain Dunning, 
resolving, with the true spirit of a brave com- 
mander to reserve that honor to himself, had seen 
the last man, as he thought, out of the ship, and 
was two-thirds of the distance along the rope on 
his way to land, when Jim Scroggles, who was 
always either in or out of the way at the most 
inopportune moments, came rushing up from be- 
low, whither he had gone to secure a favorite 
brass finger-ring, and scrambled over the side. 

22 * 


258 


THE KED ERIC. 


It would be difficult to say wheiner Jim’s head, 
or feet, or legs, or knees, or arms went over the 
side first — they all got over somehow, nobody 
knew how — and in the getting over his hat flew 
off and was lost forever. 

Seeing this, and feeling, no doubt, the momen- 
tous truth of that weU-known adage — “ Now or 
never,” Master Jacko uttered a shriek, bounded 
from his position of fancied security, and seized 
Jim Scroggles, firmly by the hair, resolved appa- ' 
rently to live or perish along with him. As to 
simply clambering along that cable to the shore, 
Jacko would have thought no more of it than of 
eating his dinner. Had he felt so disposed he 
could have walked along it, or hopped along it, 
or thrown somersaults along it. But to proceed 
along it when it was at one moment thirty feet 
above the sea, rigid as a bar of iron, and the next 
moment several feet under the mad turmoil of the 
raging biUows — this it was that filled hif^ little 
bosom with inexpressible horror, and induced him 
to cling with a tight embrace to the hair of the 
head of his bitterest enemy ! 

Having gained the shore, Jacko immediately took 
up his abode in the warmest spot on that de&olate 
sandbank, which was the centre of the mass of 
cowering and shivering men who sought shelter 
under the lee of the rocks, where he was all but 
squeezed tO death, but where he felt comp *ratively 
warm nevertheless. When the sun can e out he 


THE CAPTAIN MAKES A EIEE. 


c259 


perched himself in a warm nook of the rock near 
to Ailie, and dried himself, after which, as we 
have already hinted, he superintended the dis* 
charging of the cargo and the arrangements made 
for a prolonged residence on the sandbank. 

‘‘ Och ! but yer a queer cratur,” remarked Briant, 
as he passed, chucking the monkey under the chin. 

“ Oo-oo-oo-ee-o I ” replied Jacko. 

“ Very thrue, r^o doubt, but I haven’t time to 
spake to ye jist yet, lad,” replied Briant, with a 
laugh, as he ran down to the beach and seized a 
barrel which had just been hauled to the water’s 
edge. 

“ What are you going to do with the wood, 
papa ? ” asked Ailie. 

The captain had seized an axe at the moment, 
and began vigorously to cut up a rough plank 
which had been driven ashore by the waves. 

“ I’m going to make a fire, my pet, to warm 
your cold toes.” 

“ But my toes .are not cold, papa ; you’ve no 
idea how comfortable I am.” 

Ailie did indeed look comfortable at that mo- 
ment, for she was lying on a bed of dry sand, 
with a thick blanket spread over her. 

“ WeU, then, it will do to warm Jacko’s toes, if 
yours don’t want it ; and besides, we all want a 
cup of tea after our exertions. The first step 
toward that end, you know, is to make a fire.” 

So saying, the captain piled up dry wood in front 


260 • 


THE RED ERIC. 


of the place where Ailie lay, and in a short time 
had a capital lire blazing, and a large tin kettle 
fall of fresh-water boiling thereon. 

It may be as well to remark here that the water 
had been brought in a small keg from the ship, 
for not a single drop of fresh-water was found on 
the sandbank after the most careful search. For- 
tunately, however, the water-tanks of the Red 
Eric still contained a large supply. 

During the course of that evening a sort of shed 
or tent was constructed out of canvas and a few 
boards placed against the rock. This formed a 
comparatively comfortable shelter, and one end of 
it was partitioned off for Ailie’s special use. No 
one was permitted to pass the curtain that hung 
before the entrance to this little boudoir, excepl 
the captain, who claimed a right to do what he 
pleased, and Glynn, who was frequently invited to 
enter in order to assist its fair occupant in her 
multifarious arrangements, and Jacko, who could 
not be kept out by any means that had yet been 
hit upon, except by killing him ; but as Ailie 
objected to this, he was suffered to take up his 
abode there, and to do him justice, he behaved 
very well while domiciled in that place. 

It is curious to note how speedily little children, 
and men too, sometimes, contrive to forget the 
unpleasant or the sad, or it may be the dangerous 
circumstances in which they may chance to be 
placed, while engaged in the minute details inci- 


ARRANGEMENTS. 


261 


dent to their peculiar position. Ailie went about 
arranging her little nest under the rock with as 
much zeal and cheerful interest as if she were 
“ playing at houses ” in her own room at home. 
She decided that one corner was peculiarly suited 
for her bed, because there was a small rounded 
rock in it which looked like a pillow; so Glynn 
was directed to spread the tarpaulin and the 
blankets there. Another corner exhibited a crev- 
ice in the rock, which seemed so suitable for a 
kennel to Jacko that the arrangement was agreed 
to on the spot. We say agreed to, because Ailie 
suggested everything to Glynn, and Glynn always 
agreed to everything that Ailie suggested, and 
stood by with a hammer and nabs and a few 
■»ieces of plank in his hands ready to fulfil her 
bidding, no matter what it should be. So Jacko 
was sent for to be introduced to his new abode, 
but Jacko was not to be found, for the very good 
reason that he had taken possession of the iden- 
tical crevice some time before, and at that mo- 
ment was enjoying a comfortable nap in its in- 
most recess. Then Ailie caused Glynn to put 
up a little shelf just over her head, which he did 
with considerable difficulty, because it turned out 
that nails could not easily be driven into the solid 
rock. After that a small cave at the foot of the 
apartment was cleaned out and Ailie’s box placed 
there. All this, and sundry other pieces of work 
were executed by the young sailor and his little 


262 


THE BED ERIC. 


friend with an amount of cheerful pleasantry that 
showed they had, in the engrossing interest of their 
pursuit, totally forgotten the fact that they were 
cast away on a sandbank on which were neither 
food, nor water, nor wood, except what was to 
be found in the wrecked ship, and around which 
for thousands of miles rolled the great billows of 
the restless sea. 


LIFE ON THE SANDBANK. 


263 


CHAPTER XVII. 

Life on tJie Sandbank. — Ailie takes possession of Fairyland. — Glynn 
and Bumble astonish the Little Fishes. 

In order that the reader may form a just con- 
ception of the sandbank on which the crew of the 
Red Eric had been wrecked, we shall describe it 
somewhat carefully. 

It lay in the Southern Ocean, a little to the 
west of the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope, 
and somewhere between 2000 and 3000 miles to 
the south of it. As has been already remarked, 
the bank at its highest point was little more than 
a few feet above the level of the ocean, the waves 
of which in stormy weather almost, and the spray 
of which altogether, swept over it. In length it 
was barely fifty yards, and in breadth about forty. 
Being part of a coral reef, the surface of it was 
composed of the beautiful white sand that is 
formed from coral by the dashing waves. At one 
end of the bank — that on which the ship had 
struck — the reef rose into a ridge of rock, which 
stood a few feet higher than the level of the sand, 
and stretched out into the sea about t\\renty yards, 
with its points projecting here and there above 
water. On the centre of the bank at its highest 
point one or two very small blades of green sub- 


264 


THE EEi> EKlC. 


stance were afterwards discovered. So few were 
they, however, and so delicate, that we feel jus- 
tified in describing the spot as being utterly des- 
titute of verdure. Ailie counted those green 
blades many a time after they were discovered. 
There were exactly thirty-five of them ; twenty- 
six were, comparatively speaking, large ; seven 
were of medium size, and two were extremely 
small — so small and thin that Ailie wondered 
they did not die of sheer delicacy of constitution 
on such a barren spot. The greater part of the 
surface of the bank was covered with the fine 
sand already referred to, but there were one or 
two spots which were covered with variously 
sized pebbles, and an immense number of beau- 
ful small shells. 

On such a small and barren spot one would 
think there was little or nothing to admire. But 
this was not the case. Those persons whose 
thoughts are seldom allowed to fix attentively on 
any subject, are apt to fall into the mistake of 
supposing that in this world there are a great 
many absolutely uninteresting things. Many 
things are, indeed, uninteresting to individuals, 
but there does not exist a single thing which has 
^ not a certain amount of interest to one or another 
cast of mind, and which will not afford food for 
contemplation, and matter fitted to call forth our 
admiration for its great and good Creator. 

We know a valley so beautiful that it has been 


LIFE ON THE SANDBANK. 


260 


for generations past, and will probably be foi 
generations to come, the annual resort of hundreds 
of admiring travellers. The valley cannot be seen 
until you are almost in it. The country imme- 
diately around it is no way remarkable ; it is even 
tame. Many people would exclaim at first sight 
in reference to it, “ How interesting.” It requires 
a close view, a minute inspection, to discover the 
beauties that lie^ hidden there. 

So was it with our sandbank. Ailie’s first 
thoughts were, “ Oh, how dreary ! how desolate ! ” 
and in some respects she was right ; but she dwelt 
there long enough to discover things that charmed 
her eye and her imagination, and caused her some- 
times to feel as if she had been transported to the 
realms of fairyland. 

We do not say, observe, that the crew of the 
Red Eric were ever blessed with such dreams. 
Jim Scroggles, for instance, had no eye for the 
minute beauties or wonders of creation. Jim, 
according to his own assertion, could see about 
as far through a millstone as most men. He 
could apostrophize his eye, on certain occasions, 
and tell it — as though its own power of vision 
were an insuRicient medium of information — 
that “ that wos a stunnin’ iceberg ; ” or that “ that 
wos a gale and a half, fit to tear the masts out o’ 
the ship a’most.” But for any less majestic ob- 
ject in nature, Jim Scroggles had nothing to say 
either to his eye, or his nose, or his shipmates. 

23 


266 


THE RED ERIC. 


As was Jim Scroggles, so were most of the 
other men. Hence they grumbled a good deal 
at their luckless condition. But upon the whole 
they were pretty cheerful' — especially at meal- 
times — and, considering their circumstances, 
they behaved very well. 

Glynn Proctor was a notable exception to the 
prevailing rule of indifference to small things. By 
nature he was of a superior stam^ of mind to his 
comrades ; besides, he had been better educated ; 
and more than all, he was at that time under the 
influence of Ailie Dunning. He admired what 
she admired ; he liked what she liked ; he looked 
with interest at the things which she examined. 
Had Ailie sat down beside the stock of an old 
anchor and looked attentively at it, Glynn would 
have sat down and stared at it too, in the firm 
belief that there was something there worth look- 
ing at ! Glynn laughed aloud sometimes at him- 
self, to think how deeply interested he had become 
in the child, for up to that time he had rather 
avoided than courted the society of children ; and 
he used to say to Ailie that the sailors would 
begin to call her his little sweetheart, if he spent 
so much of his time with her ; to which Ailie 
would reply by asking what a sweetheart was ; 
whereat Glynn would laugh immoderately j — 
whereupon Ailie would tell him not to be stupid, 
but to come and play with her ! 

All the sailors, even including the taciturn Tar« 


PAIRTLAin). 


267 


quin, had a tender feeling of regard for the little 
girl who shared their fortunes at that time, but 
with the exception of Glynn, none were capable of 
' sympathizing with her in her pursuits. Tim 
Rokens, her father, and Dr. Hopley did to some 
extent, but these three had their minds too deeply 
filled with anxiety about their critical position to 
pay her much attention, beyond the kindest con- 
cern for her physical wants. King Bumble, too, 
we beg his pardon, showed considerable interest in 
her. The sable assistant of Nikel Sling shone 
conspicuous at this trying time, for his activity, 
good humor, and endurance, and in connection 
with Phil Briant, Gurney, and Jacko, kept up the 
spirits of the shipwrecked men wonderfully. 

Close under the rocks, on the side furthest re- 
moved from the spot where the rude tent was 
pitched, there was a little bay or creek, not more 
than twenty yards in diameter, which Ailie appro- 
priated and called fairyland ! It was an uncom- 
monly small spot, but it was exceedingly beautiful 
and interesting. The rocks, although small, were 
so brol^en and fantastically formed, that when 
Ailie crept close in amongst them, and so placed 
herself that the view of the sandbank was entirely 
shut out, and nothing was to be seen but little 
pools of crystal water and rocklets, with their mar- 
gin of dazzling white sand, and the wreck of the 
ship in the distance, with the deep blue sea be- 
yond, she quite forgot where she actually was, and 


268 


THE RED ERIC. 


began to wander in the most enchanting day- 
dreams. But when, as often happened, there 
came towering thick masses of snowy clouds, like 
mountain peaks and battlements in the bright 
blue sky, her delight was so great that she could 
find no words to express it. 

At such times — sometimes with Glynn by her 
dde, sometimes alone — she would sit in a sunny 
nook, or in a shady nook if she felt too warm, and 
invite innumerable hosts of fairies to come and 
conduct her through interminable tracts of pure- 
white cloud region, and order such unheard-of 
wild creatures (each usually wanting a tail, or a 
leg, or an ear) to come out of the dark caves, that 
had they been all collected in one garden for ex- 
hibition to the pubKc,that zoological garden would 
have been deemed, out of sight, the greatest of 
all the wonders of the world. 

When a little wearied with those aerial jour- 
neys she would return to “ fairyland,” and lean- 
ing over the brinks of the pools, peer down into 
their beautiful depths for hours at a time. 

Ailie^s property of fairyland had gardes, too, 
of the richest possible kind, full of flowers of the 
most lovely and brilliant hues. But the flowers 
were scentless, and, alas ! she could not pluck 
them, for those gardens were aU under water ; they 
grew at the bottom of the sea ! Yes, reader, if 
the land was barren on that ocean islet, the pools 
there made up for it by presenting to view the 


FAIRYLAlfD. 


269 


most luxuriant marine vegetation. There were 
forests of branching coral of varied hues ; there 
were masses of fan-shaped sponges ; there were 
groves of green and red sea-weeds ; and beds of 
red, and white, and orange, and striped creatures 
that stuck to the rocks, besides little fish with 
bright-colored- backs that played there as if they 
really enjoyed lining always under water — which 
is not easy for us, you know, to r^alize! And 
above all, the medium of- water betvveen Ailie and 
these things was so pure and pellucid when no 
breeze fanned the surface, that it was difficult to 
believe, unless you touched it, there was any water 
there at all. 

While AiHe thus spent her time, or at least hei 
leisure time, for she was by no means an idlei 
in that busy little isle, the men were actively en- 
gaged each day in transporting provisions from the 
Red Eric to the sandbank, and in making them 
as secure as circumstances would admit of. For 
this purpose a raft had been constructed, and sev- 
eral trips a-day were made to and from the wreck, 
so that in the course of a few days a considerable 
stock of provision was accumulated on the bank. 
This was covered with tarpaulin, and heavy casks 
of salt junk were placed on the corners and edges 
to keep it down. 

“ m tell ye wot it is, messmates,’’ remarked 
Gurney, one day, as they sat down round then- 
wood &e to dine in front of their tent, “ we’re pu 
23 * 


270 


THE RED ERIC. 


visioned for six months at least, an’ if the weather 
only keeps fine I’ve no objection to remain wot- 
ver.” 

“ May-be,” said Briant, ye’U have to remain 
that time whether ye object or not.” 

“ By no means, Paddy,” retorted Gurney ; “ 1 
could swum off to sea and be drownded if I hked.” 

“ No ye couldn’t, avic,” said Briant. 

« Why not ? ” demanded Gurney. 

“ ’ Cause ye haven’t the pluck,” replied Phil. 

“ I’ll pluck the nose off yer face,” said Gurney, 
in affected anger. 

“ No ye wont,” cried Phil, “ ’cause av ye do I’ll 
spile the soup by heavin’ it aU over ye.” 

“ Oh ! ” exclaimed Gurney, with a look of horror, 
“ listen to him, messmates, he calls it ‘ soup ’ — the 
nasty kettle o’ dirty water ! Well, well, it’s lucky 
we hain’t got nothin’ better to compare it with.” 

“ But, I say, lads,” interposed Jim Scroggles, 
seriously, “ wot’U we do if it comes on to blow a 
gale and blows away aU our purvisions ? ” 

“ Ay, boys,” cried Dick Barnes, “ that ere’s the 
question, as Hamlet remarked to his grandfather’s 
ghost ; wot is to come on us supposin’ it conies 
on to blow sich a snorin’ gale as ’U blow the whole 
sandbank away, carryin’ us and our prog over- 
board along with it ? ” 

“ Wot’s that there soup made of? ” demanded 
Tim Rokens. 

“ Salt junk and peas,” replied Nikel Sling. 


gubney’s account of himself. 


271 


“ Ah ! I thought there was somethin’ else in it/ 
said Tim, carelessly, “ for it seems to perdooce on 
comrnon bad jokes in them wot eats of it.” 

“ Now, Tim, don’t you go for to be sorcostic, 
but tell us a story.” 

“ Me tell a story ? No, no, lads ; there’s Glynn 
Proctor, he’s the boy for you. Where is he ? ” 

“ He’s aboard the wreck just now. The cap’n 
sent him for charts and quadrants, and suchlike 
cooriosities. Come, Gurney, tell you one if Tim 
wonb How wos it, now that you so mistook 
yer trade as to come for to go to sea ? ” 

“ I can’t very well teU ye,” answered Gurney, 
who, having finished dinner, had lit his pipe, and 
was now extended at full length on the sand, lean- 
ing on one arm. “ Ye see, lads, I’ve had more or 
less to do with the sea, I have, since ever I corned 
into this remarkable world — not that J ever, to my 
knowledge, knew one less coorous,ibr I never wos 
up in the stars ; no more, I s’pose, was ever any o’ 
you. I was born at sea, d’ye see ? I don’t ’xactly 
know how I corn’d for to be born there, but I was 
told that I was, and if them as told me spoke truth, 
I s’pose I wos. I was washed overboard in gales 
three times before I corned for to know myself at 
all. When I first came alive, so to speak, to my 
own certain knowledge, I wos a-sitting on the top 
of a hen-coop aboard an East Indiaman, roarin’ 
like a mad bull as had lost his senses ; ’cause 
why? the hens wos puttin’ their heads through the 


272 


THE RED ERIC. 


bars o’ the coops, and pickin’ at the calves o’ iiy 
legs as fierce as if they’d suddenly turned canni- 
bals, and rather liked it. From that time I began 
a life o’ misery. My life before that had bin 
pretty much the same, it seems, but I didn’t 
know it, so it didn’t matter. D’ye know, lads, 
when ye don’t know a thing it’s all the same as 
if it didn’t exist, an’ so, in coorse, it don’t matter.” 

Oh I ” exclaimed the first mate, who came 
up at the moment, “ ’ave hany o’ you fellows got 
a note-book in which we may record that horac- 
ular and truly valuable hobserwation ? ” 

^ No one happening to possess a note-book, Gur- 
ney was allowed to proceed with his account of 
himself. 

“ Ships has bin my houses all along up to this 
here date. I don’t believe, lads, as ever I wos 
above two months ashore at a time all the coorse 
of my life, an’ mostly not so long as that. The 
smell o’ tar and the taste o’ salt water wos the fust 
things I iver corned across — ’xcept the Line, 1 
corned across that jist about the time I wos born, 
so I’m told, — and the smell o’ tar and taste o’ 
salt water’s wot I’ve bin used to most o’ my life, 
and,' moreover, wot I likes best. One old gen’le- 
man as took a fancy to me w’en I wos a boy, said 
to me, one fine day, w’en I chanced to be ashore 
visitin’ my mother — says he, ‘ My boy, would ye 
like to go with me and hve in the country, &,nd be 
a gardner ? ’ ‘ Wot,’ says I, / keep a garding, and 


FKESH SUPPLIES OE FOOD. 


273 


plant taters, and hoe flowers an’ cabidges ? ’ ‘ Yes,’ 
says he, ‘ at least, somethin’ o’ that sort.’ ‘ No 
thankee,’ says I ; ‘I b’long to the sea, I do ; 1 
wouldn’t leave that ’ere no more nor I would quit 
my first love if I had one. I’m a sailor, I am, out 
and out, through and through — true blue, and no 
mistake, an’ no one need go for to try to cause me 
for to forsake my purfession, and live on shore like 
a turnip ’ — that’s wot I says to that old gen’leman. 
Yes, lads, I’ve roamed the wide ocean, as the song 
says, far an’ near. I’ve been tatooed by the New 
Zealanders, and I’ve danced with the Hottentots, 
and ate puppy dogs with the Chinese, and fished 
whales in the North Seas, and run among the ice 
near the South Pole, and fowt with pirates, and 
done service on boord of men o’ war and mer- 
chant-men, and junks, and bumboats ; but I 
never,” concluded Gm-ney, looking round with a 
sigh, “ I never came for to be located on a sand- 
bank in ihe middle of the ocean.” 

“ No more did any on us,” added Rokens. 
‘‘ Moreover, if we’re not picked up soon by a 
ship o’ some sort, we’re not likely to be located 
here long, for we can’t live on salt junk forever; 
we shall aU die of the scurvy.” 

There was just enough of possible and' probable 
truth in the last remark, to induce a feeling of sad- 
ness among the men for a few minutes, but this 
was quickly put to flight by the extraordinary 
movements of. Phil Briant. That worthy had left 


274 


THE RED ERIC. 


the group round the fire, and had wandered out im 
the extreme end of the rocky point, where he sat 
down to indulge, possibly in sad, or mayhap hope- 
ful reflections. He was observed to start suddenly 
up, and gaze into the sea eagerly for a few sec- 
onds ; then he cut a caper, slapped his thigh, and 
ran hastily toward the tent 

“ What now ? where away, Phil ? ” cried one 
of the men. 

Briant answered not, but speedily reappeared 
at the opening of the tent door with a fishing-line 
and hook. Hastening to the point of rock, he opened 
a small species of sheU-fish that he found there, 
wherewith he baited his hook, and then cast it 
into the sea. In a few minutes he felt a twitch, 
which caused him to return a remarkably vigo- 
rous twitch, as it were, in reply. 

The fish and the sailor for some minutes acted 
somewhat the part of electricians in a telegraph 
•office ; when the fish twitched, Briant twitched ; 
when the fish pulled and paused, Briant pulled 
and paused, and when the fish held on hard, Briant 
puUed hard, and finally pulled him ashore, and a 
very nice plump rock-codling he was. There were 
plenty of them, so in a short time there was no 
lack of fresh fish, and Roken’s fear that they 
would have to live on salt junk was not realized. 

Fishing for rock-codlings now became one of the 
chief recreations of the men while not engaged in 
bringing various necessaries from the wreck. But 


FAIHrLAND. 


276 


for many days at first they found their hands fully 
occupied in making their new abode habitable, in 
enlarging and improving the tent, which soon by 
degrees came to merit the name of a hut, and in 
inventing Various ingenious contrivances for the 
improvement of their condition. It was not until 
a couple of weeks had passed, that time began to 
hang heavy on their hands, and fishing became a 
general amusement. 

They all fished, except Jacko. Even Ailie tried 
it once or twice, but she did not like it and soon 
gave it up. As for Jacko, he contented himself 
with fishing with his hands, in a sly way, among 
the provision casks, at which occupation he was 
quite an adept ; and many a nice tit bit did he fish 
up and secrete in his private apartment for future 
use. Like many a , human thief, Jacko was at 
least compelled to leave the greater part of his 
ill-gotten and hoarded gains behind him. 

One day Glynn and Ailie sat by the margin of 
a deep pool in Fairyland, gazing down into its 
clear depths. The sun’s rays penetrated to the 
very bottom, revealing a thousand beauties in form 
and color that called forth from Ailie the most 
extravagant expressions of admiration. ‘ She 
wound up one of those eloquent bursts by saying — - 

“ Oh ! Glynn, how very, very much I do wish 
1 could go down there and play with the dear, 
exquisite, darling little fishes ! ” 

You’d surprise them, I suspect,” said Glynn 


276 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ It’s rather too deep a pool to play in unless you 
were a mermaid.” 

“ How deep is it, Glynn ? ” 

“ ’Bout ten feet, I think.” 

“ So much ? It does not look like it. What a 
very pretty bit of coral I see over there, close to 
the white rock ; do you see it ? It is bright pink. 
Oh, I would like so much to have it.” 

“ Would you,” cried Glynn, jumping up and 
throwing off his jacket ; “ then here goes for it.” 

So saying he clasped his hands above his head, 
and bending forward, plunged into the pool and 
went straight at the piece of pink coral, head fore- 
most, like an arrow ! 

Glynn was lightly clad. His costume consisted 
simply of a pair of white canvas trousers and a 
blue striped shirt, with a silk kerchief round his 
neck, so that his movements in the water were 
little, if at all, impeded by his clothes. At the 
instant he plunged into the water. King Bumble 
happened to approach, and while Ailie stood petri- 
fied with fear as she saw Glynn struggling violetitly 
at the bottom of the pool, her sable companion 
stood looking down with a grin from ear to ear 
that displayed every one of his bright teeth. 

‘‘ Don’t be ’fraid, Missie AUy,” said the negro ; 
“ him’s know wot him’s doin’, ho yis ! ” 

Before Ailie could reply, Glynn was on the 
surface spluttering and brushing the hair from his 
forehead with one hand, while with the other he 
hugged to his breast the piece of pink coral. 


GLYNN VISITS THE LITTLE FISHES. 277 


“ Here — it — ha ! — is. My breath — ho — is 
almost gone — Ailie — catch hold ! ” cried he, as 
he held out the coveted piece of rock to the child 
and scrambled out of the pool. 

“ Oh, thank you, Glynn ; but why did you go 
down so quick and stay so long ? I got such a 
fright.” 

“ You bin pay your ’spects to de fishes,” said 
Bumble, with a grin. 

“ Yes I have. Bumble, and they say that if you 
stare at them any longer with your great goggle 
eyes they’ll all go mad with horror and die right 
off. Have you caught any codlings. Bumble ? ” 

“ Yis me hab, an’ me hab come for to make a 
preeposol to Missie Ally.” 

“ A what. Bumble ? ” 

“ A preeposol — a digestion.” 

“ I suppose you mean a suggestion, eh ? ” 

“ Yis, dat the berry ting.” 

“ Well, out with it.” 

“ Dis am it. Me ketch rock-coddles ; well, me 
put ’em in bucket ob water an’ bring ’em to you, 
Missie Ally, an’ you put ’em into dat pool and 
tame ’em, an’ hab great fun with ’em. Eeh ! woi 
you tink ? ” 

“ Oh ! it will be so nice. How good of you to 
think about it. Bumble ; do get them as quick as 
vou can.” 

Bumble looked grave and hesitated. 

“ Why, what’s wrong ? ” inquired Glynn. 

24 


278 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Oh, noting. Me only tink me not take the 
trouble to put ^e:n into dat pool where de fishes 
speak so imperently ob me. Stop, me will go 
an’ ask if dey sorry for wot de hab say.” 

So saying the negro uttered a shout, sprang 
straight up into the air, doubled his head down 
and hifc heels up, and cleft the water like a knife. 
Glynn uttered a cry something between a yell and 
a laugh, and sprang after him, falling flat on the 
water and dashing the whole pool into foam, and 
there the two wallowed about like two porpoises, 
to the unbounded delight of Ailie, who stood on 
the brink laughing until the tears ran down her 
cheeks, and to the unutterable horror, no doubt, 
of the Htfle fish. 

The rock-codlings were soon caught and trans- 
xerred to the pool, in which, after that, neither 
Glynn nor Bumble were suffered to dive or swim, 
and Ailie succeeded, by means of regularly feed- 
ing them, in making the little fish less afraid of 
her than they were at first. 

But while Ailie and Glynn were thus amusing 
themselves and trying to make the time pass as 
pleasantly as possible. Captain Dunning was op- 
pressed with the most anxious forebodings. They 
had now been several weeks on the sandbank. 
The weather had during that time been steadily 
fine and calm, and their provisions were still abun- 
dant, but he knew that this could not last. More- 
over he found on consulting his charts that he 


THINGS GROW WORSE. 


279 


was far out of the usual course of ships, and that 
deliverance could only be expected in the shape 
of a chance vessel. 

Oppressed with these thoughts, which, however, 
he carefully concealed from every one except Tim 
E-okens and the doctor, the captain used to go on 
the point of rocks every day and sit there for 
hours, gazing wistfully over the sea. 


280 


THE RED ERIC. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

Matters grow worse and worse. — The Mutiny. — Commencement 
of Boat-building, and threatening Storms. 

One afternoon, about three weeks after the Red 
Eric had been wrecked on the sandbank, Captain 
Dunning went put on the point of rocks, and took 
up his accustomed position there. Habit had now 
caused him to go to the point with as much regu- 
larity as a sentinel. But on the present occasion 
anxiety was more deeply marked on his counte- 
nance than usual, for dark, threatening clouds were 
seen accumulating on the horizon, an unnatural 
stillness prevailed in the hot atmosphere and on 
the glassy sea, and every thing gave indication 
of an approaching storm. 

While he sat on a low rock, with his elbows on 
his knees, and his chin resting in his hands, he felt 
a light touch on his shoulder, and looking round, 
found Ailie standing by his side. Catching her in 
his arms, he pressed her fervently to his heart, and 
for the first time spoke to her in discouraging tones. 

“ My own darling,” said he, parting the haii 
trom her forehead, and gazing at the child with an 
expression of the deepest sadness, “ I fear we 
shall never quit this dreary spot.” 

Ailie looked timidly in her father’s face, for his 


PRAYEE TO GOD FOR DELIVERANCE. 281 


agitated manner, more than his words, alarmed 
her. 

“ Wont we leave it, dear papa,” said she, “ to go 
up yonder? ” and sJie pointed to a gathering mass 
of clouds over head, which, although heavy with 
dark shadows, had still a few bright, sunny points 
of resemblance to the fairy realms in which she 
delighted to wonder in her day-dreams. 

The captain made no reply ; but, shutting his 
eyes, and drawing Ailie close to his side, he uttered 
a long and fervent prayer to God for deliverance, 
if He should see fit, or for grace to endure with 
Christian resignation and fortitude whatever He 
pleased to send upon them. 

When he concluded, and again looked up. Dr. 
Hopley was standing beside them, with his head 
bowed upon his breast. 

“ I fear, doctor,” said the captain, “ that I have 
broken my resolution not to alarm my dear Ailie 
by word or look. Yet why should I conceal from 
her the danger of our position ? Her prayers for 
help ought to ascend, as well as ours, to Him who 
alone can deliver us from evil at any time, but 
who makes us to feel^ as well as know^ the fact 
at such times as these.” 

“ But I’m not afraid, papa,” said Ailie quickly. 
“ I’m never afraid when you are by hie ; and I’ve 
known we were in danger all along, for I’ve heard 
everybody talking about it often and often, and 
I’ve always prayed for deliverance, and surely it 
24 * 


282 


THE BED ERIC. 


must come , lor has not Jesus said if \ve ask any 
thing in His name, He will give it to us ? ” 

True, darling ; but He means only such things 
as will do us good.’’ 

“ Of course, papa, if I asked for a bad thing, I 
would not expect him to give me that.” 

“ Deliverance from death,” said the doctor, “ is 
a good thing, yet we cannot be sure that God will 
grant our prayer for that.” 

“ There are worse things than death, doctor,” 
replied the captain ; “ it may be sometimes better 
for men to die than to live. It seems to me that 
we ought to use the words, ‘ if it please the Lord,’ 
more frequently than we do in prayer. Deliver- 
ance from sin needs no such ‘ if,’ but deliverance 
from death does.” 

At this point the conversation was interrupted 
by Tim Rokens, who came up to the captain, and 
said respectfully : 

“ If ye please, sir, it ’ud be as well if ye wos to 
speak to the men ; there’s somethin’ like mutiny 
agoin’ on, I fear.” 

“ Mutiny ! why, what about ? ” 

“ It’s about the spirits. Some on ’em says as 
how they wants to enjoy theirselves here as much 
as they can, for they wont have much chance o’ 
doin’ so ashore any more. It’s my belief that 
fellow Tarquin’s at the bottom o’t.” 

“ There’s not much spirits aboard the wreck to 
fight about,” said the captain, somewhat bitterly^ 


THE MUTIIT?. 


283 


as they all rose, and hurried toward the hut. “ 1 
only brought a supply for medicine ; but it must 
not be touched, however little there is.’* 

When the captain came up, he found the space 
in front of their rude dwelling a scene of contention 
and angry dispute that bade fair to end in a fight. 
Tarquin was standing before the first mate, with his 
knife drawn, and using violent language and gestic- 
ulations toward him, while the latter stood by the 
raft, grasping a handspike, with which he threat- 
ened to knock the steward down if he set foot on 
it. The men were grouped round them, some 
with looks that implied a desire to side with Tar- 
quin, while others muttered, “ Shame ! ” 

“ Shame I ” cried Tarquin, looking fiercely round 
on his shipmates. “ Who cried shame ? We’re 
pretty sure aU on us to be starved to death on this 
reef ; and it’s my opinion, that since we haven’t got 
to Live long, we should try to enjoy ourselves as 
much as we can. There’s not much spirits aboard, 
more’s the pity ; but what there is I shall have. 
So again, I say, who cried ‘ Shame ? ’ ” 

“ I did,” said Glynn Proctor, stepping quickly 
forward ; “ and I invite all who think with me to 
back me up.” 

“ Here ye are, me boy,” said Phil Briant, start 
ing forward, and baring his brawny arms, as was 
his invariable custom in such circumstances. “ It’s 
meself as’U stick by ye, lad, av the whole crew 
should go with that half-caste crokidile.” 


284 


THE RED ERIC. 


Gurney and Dick Barnes immediately sided with 
Glynn, also, but' Jim Scroggles and Nikel Sling, 
and, to the surprise of every one, Markham, the 
second mate, sided withfhe steward. As the oppos- 
ing parties glanced at each other, Glynn observed 
that, although his side was superior in numbers, 
some of the largest and most powerful men of the 
crew were among his opponents, and he felt that 
a conflict between such men must inevitably be 
serious. Matters had almost come to a crisis when 
Dr. Hopley and the captain approached the scene 
of action. The latter saw at a glance the state of 
affairs, and, stepping up to the steward, ordered 
him at once into the hut. 

Tarquin seemed to waver for a moment under 
the stern gaze of his commander ; but he suddenly 
swore a terrible oath, and said that he would not 
obey. 

“ You’re no longer in command of us,” he said, 
gruffly, “ now that you have lost your ship. Every 
man may do what he pleases.” 

‘‘ May he ? ” replied the captain ; “ then it pleases 
me to do that ! ” and, launching out his clenched 
right hand with all his might, he hit the steward 
tlierewith right between the eyes. 

Tarquin went down as if he had been shot, and 
lay stunned and at full length upon the sand. 

“ Now, my lads,” cried the captain turning to- 
ward the men, “ what he said just now is so far 
right. Having lost my ship, I am no longer en- 


THE MUTINY. 


285 


titled to command you ; but my command does 
not cease unless a majority of you choose that it 
should. Tarquin has taken upon himself to decide 
the question without asking your opinion, which 
amounts to mutiny, and mutiny, under the circum- 
stances in which we are placed, requires to be 
promptly dealt with. I feel it right to say this, 
because I am a man of peace, as you well know, 
and do not approve of a too ready appeal to the 
fists for the settlement of a dispute.” 

“ Ah, then, more’s the pity! ” interrupted Briant, 
for ye use them oncommon well.” 

A suppressed laugh followed this remark. 

“ Silence, men, this is no time for jesting. One 
of our shipmates has, not long since, been taken 
suddenly from us ; it may be that we shall all of 
us be called into the presence of our Maker before 
many days pass over us. We have much to do 
that will require to be done promptly and well, 
if we would hope to be delivered at all, and the 
question must be decided noiv^ whether I am to 
command you, or every one is to do what he 
pleases.” 

“ I votes for Cap’en Duning,” exclaimed Gur- 
ney. 

“ So does I,” cried Jim Scroggles ; who being 
somewdiat weather-cockish in his nature, tmned 
always with wonderful facility to the winning side. 

“ Three cheers for the cap’en,” cried Dick Barnes, 
suiting the action to the word. 


286 


THE EED ERIO. 


Almost every voice joined in the vociferous 
cheer with which this proposal was received. 

“ An’ wan more for Miss Ailie,” shouted Phil 
Briant. 

Even Jacko lent his voice to the tremendous 
cheer that followed, for Briant in his energy 
chanced to tread on that creature’s unfortunate 
tail, which always seemed to be in his own way 
as well as in that of every one else, and the shriek 
that he uttered rang high above the laughter into 
which the cheer degenerated, as some one cried, 
“ Ah, Pat, trust you, my boy, for rememberin’ the 
ladies ! ” . 

Order having been thus happily restored, and 
Captain Dunning having announced that the late 
attempt at mutiny should thenceforth be buried in 
total oblivion, a council was called, in order to con- 
sider seriously their present circumstances, and to 
devise, if possible, some means of escape. 

“ My lads,” said the captain, when they were all 
assembled, “ I’ve been ponderin’ over matters ever 
since we were cast away on this bank, an’ I’ve at 
last come to the conclusion that our only chance 
of gettin’ away is to build a small boat and fit her 
out for a long voyage. I need not tell you that 
this chance is a poor one — wellnigh a forlorn 
hfee. Had it been better I would have spoken 
before now, and began the work sooner ; but I 
‘have lived from day to day in the hope of a ship 
heaving in sight. This is a vain hope. We are 


INDICATIONS OP A GALE. 


287 


far out of the usual track of all ships here. None 
come this way, except such as may chance to be 
blown out of their course, as we were ; and even 
if one did come within sight, it’s ten chances to 
one that we should fail to attract attention on 
such a low bank as this. 

“ I have had several reliable observations qf late, 
and I find that we are upwards of two thousand 
miles from the nearest known land, which is the 
Cape of Good Hope. I propose, therefore, that 
we should strip off as much of the planking of the 
wreck as will suit our purpose, get the carpenter’s 
chest landed, and commence work at once. Now, 
what say you ? If any one has a better plan to 
suggest. I’ll be only too glad to adopt it, for such a 
voyage in so slim a craft as we can build here wiU 
be one necessarily replete with danger.” 

“ I’ll tell ye wot it is, cap’en,” said Tim Rokens, 
rising up, taking off his cap, and clearing his 
throat, as if he were about to make a studied 
oration. “ We’ve not none on us got no sugges- 
tions to make wotsomdiver. You’ve only got to 
give the word and we’U go to work; an’ the 
sooner you does so the better, for it’s my b’lief 
we’ll have a gale afore long that ’ll pretty well 
stop work altogether as long as it lasts.” 

' The indications in the sky gave such ample tes- 
timony to the justness of Roken’s observations 
that no more time was wasted in discussion. 
Dick Barn 3S, who acted the part of ship’s-carpen- 


288 


THE BED ERIC. 


ter when not otherwise engaged, went out to the 
wreck on the raft, with a party of men under com- 
mand of Mr. Millons, to fetch planking and the 
necessary material for the construction of a boat, 
while the remainder of the crew, under the cap- 
tain’s superintendence, prepared a place near 
Fairyland for laying the keel. 

This spot was selected partly on account of the 
convenient formation of the shore for the launch- 
ing of the boat when finished, and partly because 
that would be the lee side of the rocky point when 
the coming storm should burst. For the latter 
reason the hut was removed to Fairyland, and 
poor Ailie had the mortification in a few hours 
of seeing her little paradise converted into an un- 
sightly wreck of confusion. Alas ! how often 
this is the case in human affairs of greater mo- 
ment ; showing the foUy of setting our hearts on 
the things of earth. It seems at first sight a hard 
passage, that, in the Word of God. “ What?” 
the enthusiastic but thoughtless are ready to ex- 
claim, “not love the world ! the bright, beautiful 
world that was made by God to be enjoyed ? 
Not love our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, 
wives ? not give our warmest affections to aU 
these ? ” Truly, ye hasty ones, if you would but 
earnestly consider it, you would find that God 
not only permits, but requires us to love all that 
is good and beautiful here, as much as we will, 
as much as we can ; but we ought to love Him- 


PREPARATIONS. 


289 


self more. If this be our happy condition, then 
our hearts are not “ set on the world ; ” on the 
contrary, they are set free to love the world and 
all that is lovable in it — of which there is very, 
very much — more, probably, than the best of 
men suppose. Else, wherefore does the Father 
love it and care for it so tenderly ? 

But Ailie had not set her heart on her posses- 
sions on the sandbank. She felt deep regret for 
a time, it is true, and in feeling thus she indulged 
a right and natural impulse, but that impulse did 
not lead to the sin of murmuring. Her sorrow 
soon passed away, and she found herself as cheer- 
ful and happy afterwards in preparing for hei 
long, long voyage as ever she had been in watch- 
ing the gambols of her fish, or in admiring tin 
lovely hues of the weeds and coral rocks in the 
limpid pools of Fairyland. 

It was a fortunate circumstance that Captain 
Dunning set about the preparations for building 
the boat that afternoon, for the storm burst upon 
them sooner than had been expected, and long 
before aU the requisite stores and materials had 
been rafted from the wi sck. 

The most important things, however, had been 
procured — such as the carpenter’s chest, a large 
quantity of planliing, oakum, and cordage, and 
. several pieces of sail-cloth, with the requisite 
thread and needles for making boat sails. StiU, 
25 


290 


THE BED ERIC. 


much was wanting when the increasing violence 
of the wind compelled them to leave off w6rk. 

Some of the men were now ordered to set about 
securing such materials as had been collected, 
while others busied themselves in fixing ropes 
to the hut and roUing huge masses of coral rock 
against its fragile walls to steady it. 

“ Av ye plaze, sir,” said Briant to the captain, 
wiping his forehead as he approached with a 
lumfi of tarry canvas, which he used in default 
of a better pocket-handkerchief, “av ye plaze, 
sir, wot ’ll I do now? ” 

“ Do something useful, lad, whatever you do,” 
said the captain, looking up from the hole which 
he was busily engaged in digging for the recep- 
tion of a post to steady the hut. “ There’s lots 
of work ; you can please yourself as to choice.” 

“ Then I corned fur to suggist that the purvi- 
sions and things a-top o’ the sandbank isn’t quite 
so safe as they might be.” 

“ True, Briant ; I was just thinking of that as 
you came up. Go and see you make a tight job 
of it Get Rokens to help you.” 

Briant hurried off, and, calling his friend, walked 
with him to the top of the sandbank, leaning 
heavily against the gale, and staggering as they 
went. The blast now whistled so that they 
could scarcely hear each other talk. 

“ We’ll be bio wed right into the sea,” shouted 
Tiip, as the two reached the pile of casks and cases. 


PEEPARATIONS. 


291 


“ Sure that’s me own belaif entirely,” roared 
his companion. 

“ Wot d’ye say to dig a hole and stick the 
things in it ? ” yelled Rokens. 

« We’re not fit,” screamed Phil. 

“ Let’s try,” shrieked the other. 

To this Briant replied by falling on his knees 
on the lee side of the goods, and digging with his 
hands in the sand most furiously. Tim Rokens 
followed his example, and the two worked like 
a couple of sea-moles (if such creatures exist) 
until a hole capable of holding several casks was 
formed. Into this they stowed all the biscuit- 
casks and a few other articles, and covered them 
up with sand. The remainder they covered with 
tarpaulin, and threw sand and stones above it 
untn the heap was almost buried out of sight. 
This accomplished, they staggered back to the 
hut as fast as they could. 

Here they found every thing snugly secured, 
and as the rocks effectually sheltered the spot 
from the gale, with the exception of an occa- 
sional eddying blast that drove the sand in their 
faces, they felt comparatively comfortable. Light- 
ing their pipes they sat down among their com- 
rades to await the termination of the storm 


292 


THE EED ERIC. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

The Storm. 

A STORM in almost all circumstances is a grand 
and solemnizing sight, one that forces man to 
feel his own weakness and his Maker’s might and 
majesty. But a storm at sea in southern lati- 
tudes, where the winds are let loose with a de- 
gree of violence that is seldom or never experi- 
enced in the temperate zones, is so terrific that 
no words can be found to convey an adequate 
idea of its appalling ferocity. 

The storm that at this time burst upon the lit- 
tle sandbank on which the shipwrecked crew 
had found shelter, was one of the most furious, 
perhaps, that ever swept the seas. The wind 
shrieked as if it were endued with fife, tore up 
the surface of the groaning deep into masses and 
shreds of foam, which it whirled aloft in mad fury, 
and then dissipated into a thin blinding mist that 
fiUed the whole atmosphere, so that one could 
scarcely see a couple of yards beyond the spot on 
which he stood. The hurricane seemed to have 
reached its highest point soon after sunset that 
night, and a ray of fight from the moon struggled 
ever and anon through the black hurtling clouds, 
as if to reveal to the cowering seamen the extreme 


THE STORM. 


29 :^ 


peril of their situation. The great ocean was 
lashed into a wide sheet of foam, and the presence 
of the little isle in the midst of that swirling waste 
of water was indicated merely by a slight circle of 
foam that seemed whiter than the rest of the sea. 

The men sat silently in their frail hut, listening 
to the howling blast without. A feeling of awe 
crept over the whole party, and the most careless 
and the lightest of heart among the crew of the 
E-ed Eric ceased to utter his passing jest, and be- 
came deeply solemnized as the roar of the breakers 
filled his ear, and reminded him that a thin ledge of 
rock alone preserved him from instant destruction. 

“ The wind has shifted a point,’’ said the cap- 
tain, who had just risen and opened a chink of 
the rude door of the hut in order to look out. 
“ I see that the keel of the boat is all fast and 
the planking beside it. The coral rock shelters 
it just now ; but if the wind goes on shifting I 
fear it will stand a poor chance.” 

“ We’d better go out and give it a hextra fast- 
ening,” suggested Mr. Millons. 

“ Not yet. There’s no use of exposing any of 
the men to the risk of being blown away. The 
wind may keep steady, in which case I’ve no fear 
for it.” 

“ I dun Imow,” said Rokens, who sat beside 
Ailie, close to the embers of their fire, with a 
glowing cinder from which he relighted his pipe 
for at least the twentieth time that night. “ You 


294 


THE RED ERIC. 


never can tell wot’s agoin’ to turn up. I’ll go 
out, cap’en, if ye like, and see that all’s fast.” 

“ Perhaps you’re right. Tim ; you may make 
a bolt across to it, and heave another rock or two 
on the planking if it seems to require it.” 

The seaman rose, and putting aside his pipe, 
threw off his coat, partly in order that he might 
present as small a surface to the wind as possible, 
and partly that he might have a dry garment to 
put on when he returned. As he opened the little 
door of the hut, a rude gust of wind burst in, fill- 
ing the apartment with spray, and scattering the 
embers of the fire. 

‘‘ I feared as much,” said the captain, as he and 
the men started up to gather together the pieces 
of glowing charcoal; “that shows the wind’s 
shifted another point ; if it goes round two points 
more it’ll smash our boat to pieces. Look sharp, 
Tim.” 

“ Lean well against the wind, me boy,” cried 
Briant, in a warning voice. 

Thus admonished, Kokens issued forth, and 
dashed across the open space that separated the 
hut from the low ledge of coral rock behind which 
the keel of the intended boat and its planking 
were sheltered. A very few minutes sufliced to 
show Tim that all was fast, and to enable him to 
place a few additional pieces of rock above the 
heap in order to keep it down. Then he prepared 
to dart back again to the hut, from the doorway of 


THE STORM. 


295 


which his proceedings were watched by the captain 
and as many of the men as could crowd round it. 

Just as the harpooner sprang from th(i shelter of 
the rock, the blast burst upon the bank with re- 
doubled fury, as if it actually were a sentient being, 
and wished to catch the sailor in its rude grasp 
and whirl him away. Rokens bent his stout frame 
against it with all his might, and stood his ground 
for a few seconds like a noble tree on some exposed 
mountain side that has weathered the gales of 
centuries. Then he staggered, threw his arms 
wildly in the air, and a moment after was swept 
from the spot and lost to view in the driving spray 
that flew over the island. 

The thing was so instantaneous that the horrified 
onlookers could scarcely credit the evidence of their 
eyes, and they stood aghast for a moment or two 
ere their feelings found vent in a cry of alarm. 
Next instant Captain Dunning felt himself rudely 
pushed aside, and Briant leaped through the door- 
way, shouting, as he dashed out — 

“ If Tim Rokens goes, if s Phil Briant as ’ll go 
along with him.” 

The enthusiastic Irishman was immediately lost 
to view and Glynn Proctor was about to follow, 
when the captain seized him by the coUar, dragged 
him back, and shut the door violently. 

“ Keep back, lads,” he cried, “ no one must leave 
the hut. If these two men cannot save themselves 
by means of their own strong muscles, no human 
power can save them.” 


296 


THE BED EBIC. 


Glynn, and indeed all of the men, felt this re- 
mark to be true, so they sat down round the fire, 
and looked in each other’s faces with the expres- 
sion of men who half belie^ ed they must be dream- 
ing. Little was said during the next ten or fifteen 
minutes ; indeed, it was difficult to make their 
voices heard, owing to the noise of the wind and 
dashing waves. The captain stood at the door, 
looking out from time to time with feelings of the 
deepest anxiety, each moment expecting to see the 
two sailors struggling back toward the hut ; but 
they did not return. Soon the gale increased to 
such a degree that every one felt, although no one 
would acknowledge it even to himself, that there 
was now no hope of their comrades ever returning. 

The wind shifted another point ; and now their 
lost shipmates were for a time forgotten in the 
anxieties of their own critical position, for their 
rocky ledge formed only a partial shelter, and every 
now and then the hut was shaken with a blast so 
terrible that it threatened to come down about 
their ears. 

“Don’t you think our house will fall, dear 
papa ? ” inquired Ailie, as a gust more furious than 
any that had hitherto passed, swept round the 
rocks, and shook the hut as if it had been made 
of pasteboard. 

“ God knows, my darling ; we are in His hands.” 

Ailie tried to comfort herself with the thought 
that her Heavenly Father was indeed the ruler of 


THE STORM. 


297 


the storm, and could prevent it from doing them 
harm if He pleased ; but as gust after gust dashed 
against the frail building, and almost shook it 
down, while the loud rattling of the boards which 
composed it almost stunned her, an irresistible 
feeling of alarm crept over her, despite her utmost 
efforts to control herself. 

The captain now ordered the men to go out and 
see that the fastenings to windward and the sup- 
ports to leeward of the hut remained firm, and to 
add more of them if possible. He set the example 
by throwing off his coat and leading the way. 

This duty was by no means so difficult or dan- 
gerous as that which had been previously per- 
formed by E-okens, for it must be remembered the 
hut as yet was only exposed to partial gusts of 
eddying wind, not to the full violence of the storm. 
It involved a thorough wetting, however, to all who 
went. In ten minutes the men reentered, and put 
on their dry coats, but as no one knew how soon 
he might again be called upon to expose himself, 
none thought of changing his other garments. 

‘‘ Now, Ailie, my pet,” said Captain Dunning, 
sitting down beside his child on the sandy floor 
of the hut, “ we’ve done all we can. If the wind 
remains as it is our house will stand.” 

“ But have you not seen Rokens or Briant ? ” 
inquired Ailie, with an anxious face, while the 
tears rolled over her cheeks. 

The captain shook his head, but made no reply 


298 


THE RED ERIC. 


and the men looked earnestly at each other, as if 
each sought to gather a ray of hope from the 
countenance of his friend. While they sat thus, 
a terrible blast shook the hut to its foundation. 
Again and again it came with ever-increasing 
violence, and then it burst on them with a con- 
tinuous roar like prolonged thunder. 

“ Look out,” cried the captain, instinctively clasp- 
ing Ailie in his arms, while the men sprang to 
their feet. The stout corner-posts bent over before 
the immense pressure, and the second mate placed 
his shoulder against one of those on the windward 
side of the hut, while Dick Barnes and Nikel Sling 
did the same to the other. 

“ It’s aU up with us,” cried Tarquin, as part of 
the roof blew off, and a deluge of water and spray 
burst in upon them, extinguishing the fire and 
leaving them in total darkness. At that moment 
Ailie felt herself seized round the waist by a pair 
of tiny arms, and putting down her hand, she felt 
that Jacko was clinging to her with a tight but 
trembling grasp. 

Even in that hour of danger, the child experi- 
enced a sensation of pleasure at the mere thought 
that there was one living creature there which 
looked up to and clung to her for protection ; and 
although she knew full weU that if the stout arm 
of her father which encircled her were removed, 
her own strength, in their present circumstances, 
could not have availed to protect herself, yet she 


THE STOKM. 


299 


felt a gush of renewed strength and courage at her 
heart when the poor little monkey put its trembling 
arms around her. 

“ Lay your shoulders to the weather-wall, lads.” 
cried the captain, as another rush of wind bore 
down on the devoted hut. 

The men obeyed, but their united strength 
availed nothing against the mighty power that^ 
raged without. The wind, as the captain had 
feared, went round another point, and they were 
now exposed to the unbroken force of the hurri- 
cane. For a few minutes the stout corner-posts 
of the hut held up, then they began to rend and 
crack. 

“ Bear down with the blast to the lee of the 
rocks, lads,” cried the captain; “it’s your only 
chance ; don’t try to face it.” 

Almost before the words left his lips the posts 
snapped with a loud crash ; the hut was actually 
lifted off the ground by the wind, and swept com- 
pletely away, while most of the men were thrown 
violently to the ground by the wreck as it passed 
over their heads. The captain fell like the rest, 
but he retained his grasp of Ailie, and succeeded 
in rising, and as the gale carried him away with 
irresistible fury he bore firmly down to his right, 
and gained the eddy caused by the rocks which 
until now fiad sheltered the hut. He was safe ; 
but he did not feel secure until he had staggered 
toward the most sheltered part, and placed hia 
child in a cleft of the rock. 


300 


THE KED ERIC. 


Here he found Gurney and Tarquin before him 
and soon after Glynn came staggering in, along 
with one or two others. In less than three minutes 
after the hut had been blown away, all the men 
were collected in the cleft, where they crouched 
down to avoid the pelting, pitiless spray that 
dashed over their heads. 

It is difficult to conceive a more desperate posi- 
tion than that in which they were now placed, yet 
there and at that moment a thriU of joy passed 
through the hearts of most, if not all of them, for 
they heard a shout, which was recognized to be the 
voice of Tim Rokens. It came from the rocks a 
few yards to their right, and almost ere it had 
died away, Rokens himself staggered into the 
sheltering cleft of rock accompanied by Phil 
Briant. 

Some of the men who had faced the dangers to 
which they had been exposed with firm nerves and 
unblanched cheeks, now grew pale and trembled 
violently, for they actually believed that the spirits 
of their lost shipmates had come to haunt them. 
But these superstitious fears were soon put to 
flight by the hearty voice of the harpooneer, who 
shook himself like a great Newfoundland dog as 
he came up and exclaimed — 

“ Why, wot on airth has brought ye all here ? ” 
“ I think we may say, what has brought you 
here ? ” replied the captain, as he grasped them 
each by the hand, and shook them with as much 


THE PROVISIONS LOST. 


301 


energy as if he had not met with them for ten 
years past. 

“ It’s aisy to tel] that,” said Briant, as he 
crouched down in the midst of the group ; “ Tim 
and me wos blow’d right across the bank, an’ we 
should no doubt ha’ bin blow’d right into the sea, 
but Tim went full split agin one o’ the casks o 
salt junk, and I went slap agin him^ and we lay 
for a moment all but dead. Then we crep’ in the 
lee o’ the cask, an’ lay there till a lull came, when 
we clapped on all sail, an’ made for the shelter o’ 
the rocks, an’ shure we got there niver a taste too 
soon, for it came on to blow the next minit, fit to 
blow the eyelids off yer face, it did.” 

“ It’s a fact,” added E-okens. “ Moreover we 
tried to git round to the hut, but as we wos twice 
nearly blowed away w’en we tried for to double the 
point, we ’greed to stay w^here we wos till the back 
o’ the gale should be broke. But, now, let’s hear 
wot’s happened.” 

The hut’s gone,” said Gurney, in reply. 
“ Blowed clean over our heads to — I dun know 
where.” 

“ Blowed away ? ” cried Bokens and Briant, in 
consternation. 

“ Not a stick left,” replied the captain. 

“ An’ the boat? ” inquired Briant. 

“ It’s gone, too, I fancy ; but we can’t be sure. ’ 

“ Then it’s all up, boys,” observed Briant ; “ for 
26 


302 


THE RED ERIC. 


nearly every morsel o’ the prog that wos on the 
top o’ the bank is washed away.” 

This piece of news fell like a thunderbolt on 
the men, and no one spoke for some minutes. 
At last the captain said — 

“ Well, lads, we must do the best we can. 
Thank God, we are still alive ; so let us see if we 
can’t make our present quarters more comfortable.” 

Setting his men the example. Captain Dunning 
began to collect the few boards and bits of canvas 
that chanced to have been left on that side of the 
rocky ledge when the hut was removed to the 
other side, and with these materials a very partial 
and insufficient shelter was put up. But the space 
thus inclosed was so small that they were all 
obliged to huddle together in a mass. Those 
furthest from the rock were not altogether pro- 
tected from the spray that flew over their heads, 
while those nearest to it were crushed and in- 
commoded by their companions. 

Thus they passed that eventful night and all 
the following day, during which the storm raged 
with such fury that no one dared venture out to 
ascertain how much, if any, of their provisions 
and stores were left to them. 

During the second night, a perceptible decrease 
in the violence of the gale took place, and before 
morning it ceased altogether. The sun rose in un- 
clouded splendor, sending its bright and warm 
beams up into the clear blue sky and down upon 


A KAY OF HOPE. 


303 


the ocean, which glittered vividly as it still swelled 
and trembled with agitation. All was serene and 
calm in the sky, while below the only sound that 
broke upon the ear was the deep and regular dash 
of the great breakers that fell upon the shores of 
the islet, and encircled it with a fringe of purest 
white. 

On issuing from their confined uneasy nest in 
the cleft of the rock, part of the shipwrecked crew 
hastened anxiously to the top of the bank to see 
how much of their valuable store of food was left, 
while others ran to the spot in Fairyland where 
the keel of the new boat had been laid. The latter 
party found to their joy that all was safe, every 
thin^ having been well secured ; but a temble 
sight met the eyes of the other men. Not a ves- 
tige of all their store remained ! The summit of 
the sandbank was as smooth as on the day they 
landed there. Casks, boxes, barrels — all were 
gone ; every thing had been swept away into the 
sea! 

Almost instinctively the men turned their eyes 
toward the reef on which the Red E^c had 
grounded, each man feeling that in the wrecked 
vessel all his hope now remained. It, too, was 
gone ! The spot on which it had lain was now 
washed by the waves, and a few broken planks 
and spars on the beach were all that remained 
to remind them of their ocean home ! 

The men looked at each other with deep 


304 


THE RED ERIC. 


despondency expressed in their countenances. 
They were haggard and worn from exposure, 
anxiety, and want of rest; and as they stood 
there in their wet, torn garments, they looked the 
very picture of despair. 

“ There’s one chance for us yet, lads,” exclaimed 
Tim Rokens, looking carefully round the spot on 
which they stood. 

“ What’s that ? ” exclaimed several of the men, 
eagerly, catching at their comrade’s words as 
drowning men are said to catch at straws. 

“ Briant an’ me buried some o’ the things, by 
good luck, when we were sent to make all snug 
here, an’ I’m of opinion they’U be here yet, if we 
could only find the place. Let me see.” ^ 

Rokens glanced round at the rocks beside which 
their hut had found shelter, and at the reef where 
the ship had been wrecked, in order to find the 
*‘‘bearin’s o’ the spot,” as he expressed it. Then 
walking a few yards to one side, he struck his foot 
on the sand and said, “ It should be hereabouts.” 

The blow of his heel returned a peculiar hoUow 
sound, very unlike that produced by stamping 
on the mere sand. 

“ Shure ye’ve hit the very spot, ye have,” cried 
Briant, falling on his knees beside the place, and 
scraping up the sand with both hands. “ It sounds 
uncommon like a bread-cask. Here it is. Hurrah ! 
boys, find a hand, wifi ye. There now, heave 
away ; but trate it tinderly ! Shure it’s the only 
Mend we’ve got in the wide world.” 


GOOD NEWS. 


305 


You’re all wrong, Phil,” cried Gurney, who 
almost at the same moment began to scrape 
another hole close by. “ It’s not our only one ; 
here’s another friend o’ the same family* Bear a 
hand, lads ! ” 

“ And here’s another ! ” cried Ailie, with a little 
scream of delight, as she observed the rim of a 
small keg just peeping out above the sand. 

“ WeU done, Ailie,” cried Glynn, as he ran to 
the spot and quickly dug up the keg in question, 
which, however, proved to be full of nails, to 
Ailie’ s great disappointment, for she expected it 
to have turned out a keg of biscuits. 

“ How many casks did you bury ? ” inquired 
the captain. 

‘‘ It’s meself can’t tell,” replied Briant ; “ d’ye 
know, Tim?” 

“ Three, I think ; but we was in sich a hurry 
that I ain’t sartin exactly.” 

“ WeU, then, boys, look here!” continued the 
captain, drawing a pretty large circle on the sand, 
“ set to work like a band of moles an’ dig up 
every inch o’ that tUl you come to the water.” 

“ That’s your sort,” cried Rokens, plunging 
elbow deep into the sand at once. 

“ Arrah ! then, here’s at ye ; a fair field an’ no 
favor at any price,” shouted Briant, baring his 
arms, straddling his legs, and sending a shower of 
sand behind him that almost overwhelmed Gurney, 
26 * 


306 


THE RED ERIC. 


before that stout little individual could get out oi 
the way. 

The spirits of the men were further rejoiced by 
the com^g up of the other party, bearing the good 
news that the keel of the boat was safe, as well as 
all her planking and the carpenter’s tools, which 
fortunately happened to have been secured in a 
sheltered spot. From the depths of despair they 
were all suddenly raised to renewed and sanguine 
hope, so that they wrought with the energy of 
gold diggers, and soon their toil was rewarded by 
the discovery of that which, in their circumstan- 
ces, they would not have exchanged for all the 
golden nuggets that ever were or will be dug up 
from ihe prolific mines of Australia, California, 
or British Columbia — namely, three casks of bis- 
cuit, a small keg of wine, a cask of fresh water, 
a roll of tobacco, and a barrel of salt junk. 


roken’s philosophy. 


307 


CHAPTER XX. 


Preparations fora Long Voyage. — Briant proves that Ghosts can 
drink. — Jacko astonishes his Friends, and saddens his Adopted 
Mother. 

« Wot /say is one thing; wot you say is another 
— so it is. I dun know w’ich is right, or w’ich is 
wrong — no more do you. P’raps you is, p’raps I 
is ; anywise we can’t both on us be right or both 
on us be wrong — that’s a comfort, if it’s nothin’ 
else. Wot you say is — that it’s morally imposs’ble 
for a crew sich as us to travel over two thousand 
miles of ocean on three casks o’ biscuit and a bar- 
rel o’ salt junk. Wot / say is — that we can, an’, 
moreover, that morals has nothin’ to do Vith it 
wotsomediver. Now, wot then ? ” 

Tim Rokens paused and looked at, Gurney, to 
whom his remarks were addressed, as if he ex- 
pected an answer. That rotund little seaman did 
not, however, appear to be thoroughly orepared to 
reply to “ wot then,” for he remained silent, but 
looked at his comrade as though to say, “ I’U be 
happy to learn wisdom from your sagacious lips.” 

“ Wot then ? ” repeated Tim Rokens, assault- 
ing his knee with his clenched fist in a peculiarly 
emphatic manner ; “ I’ll tell ye wot then, as you 


308 


THE BED ERIC. 


may be right and I may be right, an’ nother on us 
can be both right or wrong, I say as how that we 
don’t know nothin’ about it.” 

Gurney looked as if he did not quite approve 
of so summary a method of solving such a knotty 
question, but observing from the expression of 
Rokens’ countenance that, though he had paused, 
that philosopher had not yet concluded, he re- 
mained silent. 

“ An’, furthermore,” continued Tim, “ it’s my 
opinion — seein’ that we’re both on us in sich a 
state o’ cumblebofubulation, an’ don’t know noth- 
in’ — we’d better go an’ ax the cap’en, who does.” 

“You may save yourselves the trouble,” ob- 
served Glynn Proctor, who at that moment came 
up and sat down on the rocks beside them, with a 
piece of the salt junk that formed an element in the 
question at issue, in his hand — “ I’ve just heard 
the captain give his opinion on that subject, and 
he says that the boat can be got ready in a week or 
less, and that, with strict economy, the provisions 
we have will last us long enough to enable us to 
make the Cape,' supposing we have good weather 
and fair winds. That’s his opinion.” 

“ I told ye so,” said Tim Rokens. 

“ You did nothin’ o’ the sort,” retorted Gurney. 

“ Well, if ye come fur to be oncommon strick 
in the use o’ your lingo, I did not ’xactly tell ye 
so, but I thought so, w’ich is all the same.” 

^ It ain’t aU the same,” replied Gurney, whose 


CHAFF. 


309 


temper seemed to have been a little soured by the 
prospects before him, “ and you don’t need to go for 
to be talkin’ there like a great Solon as you are.” 

“ Wot’s a Solon? ” inquired Tim. 

“ Solon was a man as thought hisself a great 
feelosopher, but he worn’t, he wor an ass.” 

“ If I’m like Solon,” retorted Rokens, you’re 
like a Solon-goose, w’ich is an animal as think 

itself an ass, ’cause it’s too great a one to know it.” 

Having thus floored his adversary, the philoso- 
phic mariner turned to Glynn and said, — 

“ In course we can't expect to be on full allow- 
ance.” 

“ Of course not, old boy ; the captain remarked, 
just as I left him, that we’d have to be content with 
short allowance — very short allowance indeed.” 

Gurney sighed deeply. 

“ How much ? ” inquired Tim. 

“ About three ounces of biscuit, one ounce of salt 
junk, and a quarter of a pint of water per day.” 

Gurney groaned aloud. 

“ You, of aU men,” said Glynn, “ have least 
reason to complain, Gurney, for you’ve got fat 
enough on your own proper person to last you a 
week at least ! ” 

“ Ay, a fortnight, or more,” added Rokens ; 
“ an’ even then ye’d scarcely be redooced to a 
decent size.” 

“ Ah, but,” pleaded Gurney, “ you scarecrow 
creatures don’t know how horrid sore the process 


310 


THE RED ERIC. 


o’ coming down is. An’ one gets so cold, too. 
It’s just like taking off your clo’s.” 

“ Sarves ye right for putting on so many,” said 
Rokens, as he rose to resume work, which he and 
Gurney had left off three-quarters of an hour 
before, in order to enjoy a quiet, philosophical 
tete-d-tete during dinner. 

“ It’s a bad business, that of the planking not 
being sufficient to deck or even half-deck the 
boat,” observed Glynn, as they went together 
toward the place where the new boat was being 
built. 

“ It is,” replied Rokens ; “ but it’s a good thing 
that we’ve got plenty of canvas to spare. It won’t 
make an overly strong deck, to be sure ; but it’s 
better than nothin’.” 

“ A heavy sea would burst it in no time,” re- 
marked Gurney. 

“We must hope to escape heavy seas, then,” 
said Glynn, as they parted, and went to their 
several occupations. 

The boat that was now building with the most 
urgent despatch, had a keel of exactly 23 feet long, 
and her breadth, at the widest part, was seven feet. 
She was being as well and firmly put together as 
the materials at their command would admit of, 
and, as far as the work had yet proceeded, she bill 
fair to become an excellent boat, capable of con- 
taining the whole crew, and their small quantity 
of pro vis' ons. This last was diminishing so rapidly 


THE BOAT. 


311 


that Captain Dunning resolved to put all hands at 
once on short allowance. Notwithstanding this, 
the men worked hard and hopefully ; for, as each 
plank and nail was added to their little baric, they 
felt as if they were a step nearer home. The cap- 
tain and the doctor, however, and one or two of 
the older men could not banish from their minds 
the fact that the voyage they were about to under- 
take was of the most perilous nature, and one 
which, in any other than the hopeless circum- 
stances in which they were placed at that time, 
would have been regarded as the most desperate 
of forlorn hopes. 

For fourteen souls to be tossed about on the 
wide and stormy sea, during many weeks, it might 
be months, in a small open boat, crowded together 
and cramped, without sufficient covering, and on 
short allowance of food, was indeed a dreary 
prospect, even for the men — how much more so 
for the delicate child who shared their trials and 
sufferings ? Captain Dunning’s heart sank within 
him when he thought of it ; but he knew how 
great an influence the conduct and bearing of a 
commander has, in such chcumstances, on his men ; 
so he strove to show a smiling, cheerful counte- 
nance, though oftentimes he carried a sad and 
anxious heart in his bosom. To the doctor and 
Tim Rokens alone did he reveal his inmost 
thoughts, because he knew that he could trust them, 
and felt that he nek led their advice and sympathy. 


312 


THE KED ERIC. 


The work progressed so rapidly, that in a few 
days more the boat approached completion, and 
preparations were being made in earnest for 
finally quitting the little isle on which they had 
fonnd a home for so many days. 

It was observed by the captain that as the work 
of boat-building drew to a close, Glynn Proctor 
continued to labor long after the others had re- 
tired to rest, wearied with the toils of the day — 
toils which they were not now so well able to bear 
as heretofore, on account of the slight want of 
vigor caused by being compelled to live on half 
allowance. 

One evening, the captain went down to the 
building yard in Fairyland, and said to Glynn, — 

“ Hallo, my boy ! at it yet ? Why, what are 
you making ? a dog-kennel, eh ? ” 

“ No ; not exactly that,” replied Glynn, laugh- 
ing. “ You’U hardly guess.” 

“ I would say it was a house for Jacko, only it 
seems much too big.” 

‘‘ It’s just possible that Jacko may have a share 
in it,” said Glynn ; but it’s not for him.” 

“ Who, then ? Not for yourself, surely ! ” 

“ It’s for Ailie,” cried Glynn, gleefully. “ Don’t 
you think it will be required ? ” he added, looking 
up, as if he half feared the captain would not 
permit his contrivance to be used. 

“ Well, I believe it will, my boy. I had in- 
tended to get some sort of covering for my dear 


THE HOUSE THAT GLYNN BUILT. 


313 


Ailie put up in the stern sheets, but I did not 
think of absolutely making a box for her.” 

“ Ah, you’ll find it will be a capital thing at 
nights. I know she could never stand the expo- 
sure ; and canvas don’t keep out the rain well ; so 
I thought of rigging up a large box, into which 
she can creep. I’ll make air-holes in the roof that 
will let in air, but not water ; and I’ll caulk the 
seams with oakum, so as to keep it quite dry in- 
side.” 

“ Thank you, my boy, it’s very kind of you to 
take so much thought for my poor child. Yet 
she deserves it, Glynn, and we can’t be too care- 
ful of her.” 

The captain patted the youth on the shoulder, 
and, leaving him to continue his work, went to see 
Gurney, who had been ailing a little during the 
last few days. Brandy, in small quantities, had 
been prescribed by the doctor, and fortunately 
two bottles of that spirit had been saved from the 
wreck. Being their whole stock. Captain Dunning 
had stowed it carefully away in what he deemed 
a secret and secure place ; but it turned out that 
some member of the crew was not so strict in his 
principles of temperance as could be desired ; for, 
on going to the spot to procure the required medi- 
cine, it was found that one of the bottles was gone. 

This discovery caused the captain much anxie- 
ty and sorrow, for, besides inflicting on them the 
27 


314 


THE RED ERIC. 


loss of a most valuable medicine, it proved that 
there was a thief in their little society. 

What was to be done ? To pass it over in si- 
lence would have shown weakness, which, espe- 
cially in the circumstances in which they were at 
that time placed, might have led at last to open 
mutiny. To discover the thief was impossible. 
The captain’s mind was soon made up. He sum- 
moned every one of the party before him, and, af- 
ter stating the discovery he had made, he said: 

“ Now lads, I’m not going to charge any of you 
with having done this thing, but I cannot let it 
pass without warning you that if I discover any of 
you being guilty of such practices in future. I’ll 
have the man tied up and give him three dozen 
with a rope’s end. You know I have never re- 
sorted, as many captains are in the habit of doing, 
to corporal punishment. I don’t hke it. I’ve 
sailed in command of ships for many years, and 
have never found it needful ; but now, more than 
ever, strict discipline must be maintained ; and I 
teU you, once for aU, that I mean to maintain it 
at any cost. 

This speech was received in silence. All per- 
ceived the justice of it, yet some felt that, until 
the thief should be discovered, they themselves 
would lie under suspicion. A few there were, in- 
deed, whose well-known and long-established 
characters raised them above suspicion, but there 
were others who knew that their character had 


A THIEF IN THE CAMP. 


315 


not yet been established on so firm a basis, and 
they felt that until the matter should be cleared 
up, their honesty would be, mentally at least, 
called in question by their companions. 

With the exception of the disposition to muti- 
ny related in a previous chapter, this was the firsi 
cloud that had risen to interrupt the harmony of 
the shipwrecked sailors, and as they returned to 
their work, sundry suggestions and remarks were 
made in reference to the possibility of discovering 
the delinquent. 

“ I didn’t think it wos poss’ble,” said Rokens. 
“ I thought as how there wasn’t a man in the 
ship as could ha’ done sich a low, mean thing as 
that.” 

“ No more did I,” said Dick Barnes. 

“ Wall, boys,” observed Nikel Sling, emphati- 
cally, “ I guess as how that I don’t believe it yet.” 

“ Arrah ! D’ye think the bottle o’ brandy stole 
hisself?” inquired Briant. 

“ I aint a-goin’ fur to say that ; but a ghost 
might ha’ done it, p’raps, a-purpose to get us into 
a scrape.” 

There was a slight laugh at this, and from that 
moment the other men suspected that Sling was 
the culprit. The mere fact of his being the first 
^ to charge the crime upon any one else — even a 
ghost — caused them, in spite of themselves, to 
come to this conclusion. They did not, howev- 
er, by word or look, show what was passing in 


316 


THE RED ERIC. 


their minds, for the Yankee was a favorite with 
his comrades, and each felt unwilling that his 
suspicion should prove to be correct. 

“ I don’t agree with you,” said Tarquin, who 
feared that suspicion might attach to himself, see- 
ing that he had been the ringleader in the recent 
mutiny; “ L don’t believe that ghosts drink.” 

“ Och ! that’s all ye know ! ” cried Phil Briant 
“ Av ye’d only lived a month or two in Owld 
Ireland, ye’d have seen raison to change yer mind, 
ye would. Sure I’ve seed a ghost the worst o’ 
liquor meself.” 

“ Oh ! Phil, wot a stunner ! ” cried Gurney. 

“ It’s as true as me name’s Phil Briant — more’s 
the pity. Did I niver teU ye o’ the Widdy Mor- 
gan, as had a ghost come to see her frequently ? ” 

“ No, never — let’s hear it.” 

“ Stop that noise with yer hammer, then, Tim 
Rokens, jist for five minutes, and I’ll teU it ye.” 

The men ceased work for a few minutes while 
theii* comrade spoke as follows : 

“ It’s not a long story, boys, but it’s long enough 
to prove that ghosts drink. 

Ye must know that, wance upon a time there 
wos a widdy as lived in a small town in the county 
o’ Clare, iu Owld Ireland, an’ oh ! but that was the 
place for drinkin’ and fightin’. It wos there that 
I learned to use me flippers ; and it wos there, too, 
that I learned to give up drinkin’, for I corned for 
to see what a mighty dale o’ harin it did to my 


A GHOST STORY. 


317 


poor countrymen. The sexton o’ the place was the 
only man as niver wint near the grog-shop, and no 
wan iver seed him overtook with drink, bul; it was 
a quare thing, that no one could rightly understand 
why he used to smell o’ drink very bad sometimes. 
There wos ayoung widdy in that town, o’ the name 
o’ Morgan, as kep’ a cow, an’ owned a small cabin, 
an’ a patch o’ tater-ground about the size o’ the 
starn sheets of our owld long-boat. She wos a 
great deal run after, wos this widdy — not that the 
young lads had an eye to the cow, or the cabin, or 
the tater-e^ate, be no manes — but she wos greatly 
admired, she wos. I admired her meself, and wint 
to see her pretty fraquent. Well, wan evenin’ I 
wint to see her, an’ says I, ‘ Mrs. Morgan, did ye 
iver hear the bit song called the Widdy Machree ? ’ 
‘ Sure I niver did,’ says she. ‘ Would ye like to 
hear it, darhnt ? ’ says I. So she says she would, an’ 
I gave it to her right off ; an’ when I’d done says 
I, ‘ Now, Widdy Morgan, ochone ! will ye take me? ’ 
But she shook her head, and looked melancholy. 
‘ Ye aint agoin’ to take spasms ? ’ says I, for I got 
frightened at her looks. ‘ No,’ says she ; ‘ but 
there’s a sacret about me ; an’ I like ye too weU, 
Phil, to decaive ye ; if ye only know’d the sacret, 
ye wouldn’t have me at any price.’ 

“ ‘ Wouldn’t I ? ’ says I ; ‘try me, cushla, and 
see av I wont.’ 

“‘Phil Briant,’ says she, awful solemn likci 
‘ I’m haunted.’ 


27 * 


318 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ ‘ Haunted ! ’ says I ; ‘ av coorse ye are, bliss 
yer purty face ; don’t I know that ivery boy in the 
parish is after ye ? ’ 

“ ‘ It’s not that I mane. It’s a ghost as haunts 
me. It haunts me cabin, and me cow, and me 
tater-estate ; an’ it drinks.’ 

“ ‘ Now, darlint,’ says I, ‘ everybody knows yer 
aisy frightened about ghosts. I don’t belave in 
one meself, an’ I don’t mind ’em a farden dip ; but 
av all the ghosts in Ireland haunted ye, I’d niver 
give ye up.’ 

“ ‘ Will ye come an’ see it this night^ ’ says she. 

“ ‘ Av coorse I wiU,’ says 1. An’ that same night 
I wint to her cabin, and she let me in, and put a 
candle on the table, an’ hid me behind a great 
clock, in a corner jist close by the cupboard, where 
the brandy bottle lived. Then she lay down on 
her bed with her clo’s on, and pulled the coverlid 
over her, and pretinded to go to slape. In less nor 
half an hour I hears a fut on the doorstep ; then a 
tap at the door, which opened, it seemed to me, of 
its own accord, and in walks the ghost, sure enough ! 
It was covered aU over from head to fut in a white 
sheet, and I seed by the way it walked that it wos 
the worse of drink. I wos in a mortal fright, ye 
may be sure, an’ me knees shuk to that extint ye 
might have heard them rattle. The ghost walks 
straight up to the cupboard, takes out the brandy- 
bottle, and fiUs out a whole tumbler quite full, and 
drinks it off; it did, the baste, ivery dhrop. I 


A GHOST STORY. 


319 


seed it with me two eyes, as sure as I’m a-standin’ 
here. It came into the house drunk, an’ it went 
out drunker nor it came in.” 

“ Is that all ? ” exclaimed several of Briant’s 
auditors. 

“ All ! av coorse it is. Wot more would ye 
have ? Didn’t I say that I’d tell ye a story as 
would prove to ye that ghosts drink, more espec- 
ially Irish ghosts. To be sure it turned out after- 
wards that the ghost was the sexton o’ the parish, 
as took advantage o’ the poor widdy’s fears ; but I 
can tell ye, boys, that ghost niver came back 
after the widdy became Mrs. Briant.” 

“ Oh ! then ye married the widdy, did ye ? ” 
said Jim Scroggles. 

“ I did ; an’ she’s ahve and hearty this day av 
she’s not ” 

Briant was interrupted by a sudden roar of 
laughter from the men, who at that moment caught 
sight of Jacko, the small monkey, in a condition of 
mind and body that, to say the least of it, did him 
no credit. We are sorry to be compelled to state 
that Jacko was evidently and undoubtedly tipsy 
Gurney said he was “ as drunk as a fiddler.” 

We cannot take upon ourself to say whether he 
was or was not as drunk as that. We are rather 
inclined to think that fiddlers, as a class, are 
maligned, and that they are no worse than their 
neighbors in this respect, perhaps not so bad. 
Certainly, if any fiddler really deserves the impu- 


320 


THE RED ERIC, 


tation, it must be a violoncello player, because he 
is, properly speaking, a base-^ddlex. 

Be this, however, as it may, Jacko was unmis- 
takably drunk — in a maudlin state of intoxication 
— drunker, probably, than ever a monkey was be- 
fore or since. He appeared, as he came slowly 
staggering forward to the place where the men were 
at work on the boat, to have just wakened out of 
his first drunken sleep, for his eyes were blinking 
like the orbs of an owl in the sunshine, and in his 
walk he placed his right foot where his left should 
have gone, and his left foot where his right should 
have gone, occasionally making a little run for- 
ward to save himself from tumbling on his nose, 
and then pulling suddenly up, and throwing up 
his arms in order to avoid falling on his back. 
Sometimes he halted altogether, and swayed to 
and fro, gazing, meanwhile, pensively at the 
ground, as if he were wondering why it had 
taken to rolling and earthquaking in that pre- 
posterous manner ; or were thinking on the bald- 
headed mother he had left behind him in the 
African wilderness. When the loud laugh of the 
men saluted his ears, Jacko looked up as quickly 
and steadily as he could, and grinned a ghastly 
smile — or something like it — as if to say, 
“ What are you laughing at, villains ? ” 

It is commonly observed that, among men, the 
ruling passion comes out strongly when they are 
tinder the influence of strong drink. So it is with 


THE THIEF DISCOVERED. 


321 


monkeys. Jacko’s ruling passion was thieving , 
but having, at that time, no particular inducement 
to steal, he indulged his next ruling passion — that 
of affection — by holding out both arms, and stag- 
gering toward Phil Briant to be taken up. 

A renewed burst of laughter greeted this move- 
ment 

“ It knows ye, Phil,” cried Jim Scroggles. 

“ Ah ! then, so it should, for it’s meself as is 
good to it. Come to its uncle, then. O good luck 
to yer purty little yaUer face. So it wos you stole 
the brandy, wos it ? Musha ! but ye might have 
know’d ye belonged to a timp’rance ship, so ye 
might.” 

Jacko spread his arms on Briant’s broad chest; 
they were too short to go round his neck — laid his 
head thereon and sighed. Perhaps he felt peni- 
tent on account of his wickedness ; but it is more 
probable that he felt uneasy in body rather than 
in mind. 

“ I say, Briant,” cried Gurney. 

“ That’s me,” answered the other. 

“ If you are Jacko’s self-appointed uncle, and 
Miss Ailie is his adopted mother, wot relation Is 
Miss Ailie to you ? ” 

“ You never does nothin’ right, Gurney,” inter- 
posed Nikel Sling : “ you can’t even preepound a 
pruposition. Here’s how you oughter to ha’ put 
it. If Phil Briant be Jacko’s uncle, and Miss Ailie 
his adopted mother — all three bein’ related in a 


322 


THE BED ERIC. 


sorter way by bein’ shipmates, an’ all on us to- 
gether bein’ closely connected in vartue of our 
bein’ messmates — wot relation is Gurney to a don- 
key? ” 

“ That’s a puzzler,” said Gurney, affecting to 
consider the question deeply. 

“ Here’s a puzzler wot’U beat it, though,” ob- 
served Tim Rokens ; suppose we all go on talkin’ 
stuff till doomsday, w’en’ll the boat be finished?” 

“ That’s true,” cried Dick Barnes, resuming 
work with redoubled energy; take that young 
thief to his mother, Phil, and tell her to rope’s-end 
him. I’m right glad to find, though, that he is 
the thief arter aU, and not one o’ us.” 

On examination being made, it was found that 
the broken and empty brandy bottle lay on the 
floor of the monkey’s nest, and it was conjectured, 
from the position in which it was discovered, that 
that dissipated little creature, having broken off 
the neck in order to get at the brandy, had used 
the body of the bottle as a pillow whereon to lay 
its drunken little head. Luckily for its own sake, 
it had spilt the greater part of the liquid, with 
which every thing in its private residence was sat- 
urated and perfumed. 

On having ocular demonstration of the depravi- 
ty of her pet, Ailie at first wept, then, on behold- 
ing its eccentric movements, she laughed in spite 
of herself. After that, she wept again, and spoke 
to it reproachfully, but failed to make the slightest 


JACKO^S WICKEDNESS. 


8 ^ 


impression on its hardened little heart. Then she 
put it to bed, and wrapped it up carefully in its 
sailcloth blanket. 

With this piece of unmerited kindness Jacko 
seemed touched, for he said, “ Oo-oo — oo-oo — 
ooee-ee ! ’’ once or twice in a peculiarly soft and 
penitential tone, after which he dropt into a calm, 
mitroubled slumber. 


^24 


TJdLii It£]!D 


CHAPTER XXI. 

The Boat finished. — Farewell to Fairyland. — Once more at Se* 

At last the boat was finished. It had two masts 
and two lug-sails, and pulled eight oars. There 
was just sufficient room in it to* enable the men to 
move about freely, but it required a little man- 
agement to enable them to stow themselves away 
when they went to sleep, and had they possessed 
the proper quantity of provisions for their contem- 
plated voyage, there is no doubt that they would 
have found themselves considerably cramped. 
The boat was named the Maid of the Isle, in 
memory of the sand-bank on which she had been 
built, and, although in her general outline and de- 
tails she was rather a clumsy craft, she was ser- 
viceable and strongly put together. 

Had she been decked, or even half decked, the 
voyage which now began would not have been so 
desperate an undertaking ; but having been only 
covered in part with a frail tarpaulin, she was not 
at all fitted to face the terrible storms that some- 
times sweep the southern seas. Each man, as he 
gazed at her, felt that his chance of ultimate escape 
was very small indeed. Still, the men had now 
been so long contemplating ihe voyage and pre- 
paring for it, and they had become so accustomed 


ADIEU TO FAIEYLAND. 


325 


to risk their lives upon the sea, that they set out 
upon this voyage at last in cheerful spirits, and 
even jested about the anticipated dangers and 
trials which they knew full well awaited them. 

It was a lovely morning, that on which the 
wrecked crew of the whaler bade adieu to “ Fairy- 
land,” as the islet had been named by Ailie — a 
name that was highly, though laughingly, approved 
of by the men. The ocean and sky presented that 
mysterious comingling of their gorgeous elements 
that irresistibly call forth the wonder and admira- 
tion of even the most unromantic and matter-of-fact 
men. Itwasoneof Ailie’s peculiarly beloved skies. 
You could not, without much consideration, have 
decided as to where was the exact line at which the 
glassy ocean met the clear sky, and it was almost 
impossible to tell, when gazing at the horizon, 
which were the real clouds and which the reflec- 
tions. 

The bright blue vault above was laden with 
clouds of the most gorgeous description, in which 
all the shades of pearly-gray and yellow were 
mingled and contrasted. They rose up, pile upon 
pile, in stupendous majesty, like the very battle- 
ments of heaven, while their images, clear and 
distinct almost as themselves, rolled down and 
down into the watery depths, until the islet — the 
only weU-defined and solid object in the scene — 
appeared to float in their midst. The rising sun 
shot throughout the vast immensity of space, and 
28 


326 


THE EED EEIC. 


its warm rays were interrupted and broken, and 
caught, and absorbed, and reflected in so many 
magical ways, that it was impossible to trace any of 
the outlines for more than a few seconds, ere the 
eye was lost in the confusion of bright lights and 
deep shadows that were mingled and mellowed 
together by the softer lights and shades of every 
degree of depth and tint into splendid harmony. 

In the midst of this scene Captain Dunning 
stood, with Ailie by his side, and surrounded by 
his men, on the shores of the little island. Every 
thing was now in readiness to set sail. The boat 
was laden, and in the water, and the men stood 
ready to leap in and push off. 

My lads,’’ said the captain, earnestly, “ we’re 
about to quit this morsel of sand-bank on which it 
pleased the Almighty to cast our ship, and on 
which, thanks be to him, we ,have found a pretty 
safe shelter for so long. I feel a sort o’ regret 
almost at leavin’ it now. But the time has come 
for us to begin our voyage toward the Cape, and 
I need scarcely repeat what you all know well 
enough — that our undertakin’ is no child’s play. 
We shall need all our bodily and our mental 
powers to carry us through. Our labor must be 
constant, and our food is not sufficient, so that we 
must go on shorter allowance from this day. I 
gave you half rations while ye were buildin’ the 
boat, because we had to get her finished and 
launched as fast as we could, but now we can’t 


ADIEU TO FAIRYLAND. 


327 


afford to eat so much. I made a careful inspection 
of our provisions last night, and I find that by al 
lowing every man four ounces a day, we can spin 
it out. We may fall in with islands, perhaps, but 
I know of none in these seas — there are none put 
down on the charts — and we may get hold of a fish 
now and then, but we must not count on these 
chances. Now it must be plain to all of you that 
our only chance of getting on well together in cir- 
cumstances that will try our tempers, no doubt, 
and rouse our selfishness, is to resolve firmly be- 
fore starting — each man for himself — that we 
will lay restraint on ourselves and try to help 
each other as much as we can.” 

There was a ready murmur of assent to this pro- 
posal ; then the captain continued : “ Now, lads, 
one word more. Our best efforts, let us exert our- 
selves ever so much, cannot be crowned with suc- 
cess, unless, before setting out, we ask the special 
favor and blessing of Him who, we are told in the 
Bible, holds the w aters of the ocean in the hollow 
of His hand. If 'He helps us, we shall be saved ; 
if He does not help us, we shall perish. We will 
therefore offer up a prayer now, in the name of 
our blessed Redeemer, that we may be delivered 
from every danger, and be brought at last in 
peace and comfort to our homes.” 

Captain Dunning then clasped his hands to- 
gether, and while the men around him reverently^ 
bowed their heads, he offered up a short and 
simple, but earnest prayei +o God. 


328 


THE KED ERIC. 


From that day forward they continued the habit 
of offering up prayer together once a day, and soon 
afterwards the captain began the practice of read- 
ing a chapter aloud daily out of Ailie’s Bible. The 
result of this was that, not only were the more 
violent spirits among them restrained, under fre- 
quent and sore privations and temptations, but all 
the party were often much comforted and filled 
with hope at times when they were by their suf- 
ferings wellnigh driven to despair. 

“ Tm sorry to leave Fairyland, papa,” said 
Ailie, sadly, as the men shoved the Maid of the 
Isle into deep water and pulled out to sea. 

“ So am I, dear,” replied the captain, sitting 
down beside his daughter in the stern-sheets of the 
boat, and taking the tiller ; “ I had no idea I could 
have come to like such a barren bit of sand so well.” 

There was a long pause after this remark. Every 
eye in the boat was turned with a sad expression 
on the bright-yellow sandbank, as they rowed 
away, and the men dipped their oars lightly into 
the calm waters, as if they were loth to leave 
their late home. 

Any spot of earth that has been for some time 
the theatre of heart-stirring events, such as rouse 
men’s strong emotions, and on which happy and 
hopeful as weU as wretched days have been spent, 
wiU so entwine itself with the affections of men 
that they will cling to it and love it, more or less 
powerfully, no matter how barren may be the spot 


ADIEU TO FAIRYLAND. 


329 


or how dreary its general aspect The sandbank 
had been the cause, no doubt, of the wreck of the 
Ked Eric, but it had also been the means, under 
God, of saving the crew and affording them shelter 
during many succeeding weeks — weeks of deep 
anxiety, but also of healthful, hopeful, energetic 
toil, in which, if there were many things to create 
annoyance or fear, there had also been not a few 
things to cause thankfulness, delight, and amuse- 
ment. 

Unknown to themselves, these rough sailors and 
the tender child had become attached to the spot, 
and it was only now that they were about to leave 
it for ever that they became aware of the fact 
The circumscribed and limited range on which 
their thoughts and vision had been bent for the 
last few weeks, had rendered each individual as 
familiar with every inch of the bank as if he had 
dwelt there for years. 

Ailie gazed at the low rocks that overhung the 
crystal pool in Fairyland, until the blinding tears 
filled her eyes, and she felt all the deep regret that 
is experienced by the little child when it is forci- 
bly torn from an old and favorite toy — regret, 
that is not in the least degree mitigated by the 
fact that the said toy is but a sorry affair, a doll, 
perchance, with a smashed head, eyes thrust out, 
and nose flattened on its face or rubbed away 
altogether — it matters not ; the long and happy 
hours and days spent in the companionship of that 


330 


THE RED ERIC. 


battered little mass of wood or wax rush on the in- 
fant memory like a dear delightful dream, and it 
weeps on separation as if its heart would break. 

Each man in the boat’s crew experienced more 
or less of the same feeling, and commented, ac- 
cording to his nature, either silently or audibly, 
on each familiar object as he gazed upon it for 
the last time. 

“ There’s the spot where we built the hut when 
we first landed, Ailie,” said Glynn, who pulled 
the aft oar, “ d’you see it? — just coming into 
view ; look ! There, it will be shut out again in 
a moment by the rock beside the coral-pool.” 

“ I see it ! ” exclaimed Ailie, eagerly, as she 
brushed away the tears from her eyes. 

“ There’s the rock, too, where we used to make 
our fire,” said the captain, pointing it out. “ It 
doesn’t look like itself from this point of view.” 

“ Ah ! ” sighed Phil Briant, ‘‘ an’ it wos at the 
fat o’ that, too, where we used to bile the kittle 
night an’ mornin’. Sure it’s many a swait bit 
and pipe I had beside ye.” 

“ Is that a bit o’ the wreck ? ” inquired Tim 
Rokens, pointing to the low rocky point with 
the eagerness of a man who had made an un- 
expected discovery. 

“ No,” replied Mr. MiUons, shading his eyes 
with his hands, and gazing at the object in ques- 
tion, “ it’s himpossible. I searched every bit o’ 
the bank for a plank before we came hoff, an 


LAST SIGHT OF LAND. 


331 


couldn’t find a morsel as big as my ’and. W’at 
say you, doctor ? ” 

“ I think with you,” answered Dr. Hopley ; 
but here’s the telescope, which will soon settle 
the question.” 

While the doctor adjusted the glass, Rokens 
muttered that “ He wos sm-e it wos a bit o’ the 
wreck,” and that “ there wos a bit o’ rock as no- 
body couldn’t easy gitt a tother side of to look, 
and that that was it, and the bit of wreck was 
there,” and much to the same effect. 

“ So it is,” exclaimed the doctor. 

“ Lay on your oars, lads, a moment,” said the 
captain, taking the glass and applying it to his eye. 

The men obeyed gladly, for they experienced 
an unaccountable disinclination to row away from 
the island. Perhaps the feeling was caused in part 
by the idea that when they took their last look at 
it, it might possibly be their last sight of land. 

“ It’s a small piece of the foretopmast cross- 
trees,” observed the captain, shutting up the tele- 
scope and resuming his seat. 

Shan we go back an’ pick it up, sir ? ” asked 
Dick Barnes, gravely, giving vent to the desires 
of his heart, without perceiving at the moment 
the absurdity of the question. 

“ Why, what would you do with it, Dick ? ” 
replied the captain, smiling. 

‘‘ Sure ye couldn’t ait it ! ” interposed Briant ; 
“ but, afther all, there’s no sayin’. May-be, Nike] 


332 


THE EEH ERIC. 


Sling could make a tasty dish out of it stewed 
in oakum and tar.” 

“ It wouldn’t be purlite to take such a tit-bit 
from the mermaids,” observed Gm'iiey, as the oars 
were once more dipped reluctantly in the water. 

The men smiled at the jest, for in the mo- 
notony of sea life every species of pleasantry, 
however poor, is swallowed with greater or less 
avidity ; but the smile did not last long. They 
were in no jesting humor at that time, and no 
one replied to the passing joke. 

Soon after this a soft gentle breeze sprang up. 
It came direct from Fairyland, as if the mer- 
maids referred to by Gurney had been touched 
by the kindly feelings harbored in the sailors’ 
bosoms towards their islet, and had wafted 
toward them a last farewell. The oars ^vere 
shipped immediately and the sails hoisted, and, 
to the satisfaction of all on board, the Maid of 
the Isle gave indications of being a swift sailer, 
for, although the puff of wind was scarcely suffi- 
cient to ruffle the glassy surface of the sea, she 
glided through the water under its influence a 
good deal faster than she had done with the oars. 

“ That’s good ! ” remarked the captain, watch- 
ing the ripples as they passed astern ; “ with fair 
winds, and not too much of ’em, we shall get on 
bravely ; so cheer up, my lassie,” he added, patting 
Aflie on the head, “ and let us begin our voyage 
in good spirits, and with hopeful, trusting hearts.” 


A BAY OF LIGHT. 


333 


“ Look at Fairyland,” said Ailie, clasping her 
father’s hand, and pointing toward the horizon. 

At the moment she spoke, an. opening in the 
great white clouds let a ray of light fall on the 
sandbank, which had now passed almost beyond 
the range of visiop The effect was to illumine 
its yellow shore, and cause it to shine out for a 
few seconds like a golden speck on the horizon. 
No one had ceased to gaze at it from the time 
the boat put forth; but this sudden change 
caused every one to start up, and fix their eyes on 
it with renewed interest and intensity. “ Shall 
we ever '=iee land again ? ” passed, in one form or 
another through the minds of all. The clouds 
swept slowly on, the golden point melted .^way, 
and the shipv/recked mariners felt that their little 
boat was now all the world to them in the i\ddst 
of that mighty world of waters. 


334 


THE RED ERIC. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

Reduced allowance of Food. — Jacko teaches Briant a Useful 
Lesson. 

The first few days of the voyage of the Maid 
of the Isle were bright and favorable. The wind, 
though light, was fair, and so steady, that the men 
were only twice obliged to have recourse to their 
oars. The boat behaved admirably. Once, during 
these first days, the wind freshened into a pretty 
stiff breeze, and a somewhat boisterous sea arose, 
so that she was tested in another of her sailing 
qualities, and was found to be an excellent sea-boat. 
Very little water was shipped, and that little was 
taken in rather through the awkwardness of King 
Bumble, who steered, than through the fault of 
the boat. 

Captain Dunning had taken care that there 
should be a large supply of tin and wooden scoops, 
for baling out the water that might be shipped in 
rough weather, as he foresaw that on the prompt- 
ness with which this duty was performed, might 
sometimes depend the safety of the boat and crew. 

There was one thing that proved a matter of 
much regret to the crew, and that was the want of 
a fowling-piece, or fire-arm of any kind. Had they 
possessed a gun, however old and bad, with ammu- 


REDUCED ALLOWANCE. 


335 


nition for it, they would have been certain, at some 
perio^ of their voyage, to shoot a few sea-birds, 
with which they expected to fall in on approaching 
the land, even although many days distant from it. 
But having nothing of the kind, their hope of 
adding to their slender stock of provisions was 
very small indeed. Fortunately, they had one or 
two fishing-lines, but in the deep water, over 
which for many days they had to sail, fishing was 
out of the question. 

This matter of the provisions was a source of 
constant anxiety to Captain Dunning. He had 
calculated the amount of their stores to an ounce, 
and ascertained that at a certain rate of distribu- 
tion they would barely serve for the voyage, and 
this without making any allowance for interrup- 
tions or detentions. He knew the exact distance 
to be passed over, namely, 2,322 miles in a straight 
line, and he had ascertained the sailing and row- 
ing powers of the boat and crew ; thus he was 
enabled to arrive at a pretty correct idea of the 
probable duration of the voyage, supposing that 
all should go well. But in the event of strong 
contrary winds arising, no fresh supplies of fish 
or fowl being obtained, or sickness breaking out 
among the men, he knew either that they must 
starve altogether, or that he must at once, before 
it was too late, still further reduce the scanty al- 
lowance of food and drink to each man. 

The captain sat a^ the helm one fine evening, 


336 


THE RED ERIC. 


about a week after their departure from Fairyland, 
brooding deeply over this subject. The bo^t was 
running before a light breeze, at the rate of about 
four or five knots, and the men who had been 
obliged to row a good part of that day, were sit- 
ting or reclining on the thwarts, or leaning over 
the gunwale, watching the ripples as they glided 
by, and enjoying the rest from labor ; for now that 
they had been for some time on reduced allow- 
ance of food, they felt less able for work than they 
used to be, and often began to look forward with 
intense longing to seasons of repose. Ailie was 
sitting near the entrance of her little sleeping 
apartment — which the men denominated a kennel 
— and master Jacko was seated on the top of it, 
scratching his sides and enjoying the sunshine. 

“ My lads/’ said the captain, breaking a silence 
which had lasted a considerable time, “ I’m 
afraid I shall have to reduce our allowance still 
further.” 

This remark was received by Gurney and Phil 
Briant with a suppressed groan — by the other 
men in silence. 

“ You see,” continued the captain, “ It wont do 
to count upon chances, which may or may not 
turn out to be poor. We can, by fixing our al- 
lowance per man at a lower rate, make quite cer- 
tain of our food lasting us until we reach the Cape, 
even if we should experience a little detention ; 
but if we go on at the present rate, we are equally 
certain that it will fail us just at the last.” 


REDUCED ALLOWANCE. 


337 


“ We’re sartain to fall in with birds before we 
near the land,” murmured Gurney, with a rueful 
expression of countenance. 

“We are certain of nothing,” replied the cap- 
tain ; “ but even suppose we were, how are we 
to get hold of them ? ” 

“ That’s true,” observed Briant, who solaced 
himself with his pipe in the absence of a suffi- 
ciency of food. “ Sea-birds, no more than land-birds, 
ain’t given to pluckin’ and roastin’ themselves, 
and flyin’ down people’s throats ready cooked.” 

“ Besides,” resumed the captain, “ the plan I 
propose, although it will entail a little more pres- 
ent self-denial, will humanljr .speaking, insure 
our getting through the voyage with life in us, 
even at the worst, and if we are so lucky as to 
catch fish or procure birds in any way, why we 
shall fare sumptuously.” 

Here Tim Rokens, to whom the men instinc- 
tively looked up on all matters of perplexity, re- 
moved his pipe from his lips, and said : 

“ Wot Cap’en Dunnin’ says is true. If we take 
his plan, why, we’U starve in a reg’lar way, little 
by little, and p’raps spin out till we git to the 
Cape ; w’ereas, if we take the other plan, we’ll 
keep a little fatter on the first part of the voy- 
age, mayhap, but we’U arrive at the end of it as 
dead as mutton, every man on us.” 

This view of the question seemed so just to the 
men, and so fuU of incontrovertible wisdom, that 
29 


THE BED ERIC. 


5 338 

it was received with something like a murmur of 
applause. 

“ You’re a true philosopher, Rokens. Now, 
Doctor Hopley, I must beg you to give us your 
opinion, as a medical man, on this knotty subject,” 
said the captain, smiling. “ Do you think that 
we can continue to exist if our daily allowance 
is reduced one-fourth ? ” 

The doctor replied, “ Let me see,” and putting 
his finger on his forehead, Irowned portentously, 
aftecting to give the subject the most intense con- 
sideration. He happened to look at Jacko when 
he frowned, and that pugnacious individual, hap- 
pening at the same instant to look at the doctor, 
and supposing that the frown was a distinct chal- 
lenge to fight, first raised his eyebrows to the top 
of his head in amazement, then pulled them down 
over his flashing orbs in deep indignation, and dis- 
played all his teeth, as well as an extent of gums 
that was really frightful to behold ! 

“ Oh ! Jacko, bad thing,” said Ailie, in a re- 
proachful tone, pulling the monkey toward her. 

Taking no notice of these warlike indications, 
the doctor, after a few minutes’ thought, looked 
up and said, — 

“ I have no doubt whatever that we can stand 
it. Most of us are in pretty good condition stiU, 
and have some fat to spare. Fat persons can en- 
dure reduced allowance of food much better and 
longer than those who are lean. There’s Gurney, 


DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD. 


839 


now, for instance, he could afford to have his share, 
even still further curtailed.” 

This remark was received with a grin of delighted 
approval by the men and with a groan by Gurney 
who rubbed his stomach gently, as if that region 
were assailed with pains at the bare thought of 
such injustice. 

“ Troth, if that’s true what ye say, doctor, I hope 
ye’ll see it to be yer duty to give wot ye cut off 
Gurney’s share to me,” remarked Briant, “for 
it’s nothing but a bag o’ bones that I am this 
minute.” 

“ Oh ! oh ! wot a wopper,” cried Jim Scroggles, 
whose lean and lanky person seemed ill adapted 
to exist upon light fare. 

“ Well,” observed the captain, “ the doctor and 
I shall make a careful calculation and let you know 
the result by supper time, when the new system 
shall be commenced. What think you, Ailie, my 
pet, wiU you be able to stand it ? ” 

“ Oh yes, papa, I don’t care how much you 
reduce my allowance.” 

“ What ! don’t you feel hungry ? ” 

“ No, not a bit.” 

“ Not ready for supper ? ” 

“ Not anxious for it, at any rate.” 

“ Och, I wish I wos you,” murmured Briant, 
with a deep sigh. “ I think I could ait the fore- 
sail, av it wos only well biled with the laste possible 
taste o’ pig’s fat.” 


340 


THE RED ERIC. 


By supper time the captain announced the fu- 
ture daily allowance, and served it out. 

Each man received a piece of salt junk — that is, 
salt beef — weighing exactly one ounce ; also two 
ounces of broken biscuit ; a small piece of tobacco, 
and a quarter of a pint of water. Although the 
supply of the latter was small, there was every prob- 
ability of a fresh supply being obtained when it 
chanced to rain, so that little anxiety was felt at 
first in regard to it ; but the other portions of each 
man^s allowance were weighed with scrupulous 
exactness, in a pair of scales which were constructed 
by Tim Rokens out of a piece of wood — a leaden 
musket-ball doing service as a weight. 

Ailie received an equal portion with the others, 
but Jacko was doomed to drag out his existence on 
a very minute quantity of biscuit and water. He 
.utterly refused to eat salt junk, and would not have 
been permitted to use tobacco, even had he been 
so inclined, which he was not. 

Although they were thus reduced to a small 
allowance of food — a smaller quantity than was 
sufficient to sustain life for any lengthened period 
■ — no one in the slightest degree grudged Jacko his 
small portion. AU the men entertained a friendly 
feeling to the little monkey, partly because it was 
Ai lie’s pet, and partly because it afforded them 
great amusement at times by it’s odd antics. 

As for Jacko himself, he seemed to thrive on 
short allowance, and never exhibited any unseem y 


JACKO TEACHES BRIANT A LESSON. 341 

haste or anxiety at meal time. It was observed, 
however, that he kept an uncommonly sharp eye on 
all that passed around him, as if he felt that his cir- 
cumstances were at that time peculiar and worthy 
of being noted. In particular he knew to a nicety 
what happened to each atom of food, from the time 
of its distribution among the men to the moment 
of its disappearance within their hungry jaws, and 
if any poor fellow chanced to lay his morsel down 
and neglect it for the tenth part of an instant, it 
vanished like a shot, and immediately thereafter 
Jacko was observed to present an unusually serene 
and innocent aspect, and to become suddenly 
afflicted with a swelling in the pouch under his 
cheek. 

One day the men received a lesson of careful- 
ness, which they did not soon forget. 

Breakfast had been served out, and Phil Briant 
was about to finish his last mouthful of biscuit 
— he had not had many mouthfuls to try his 
masticating powers, poor fellow — when he 
paused suddenly, and gazing at the cherished 
morsel addressed it thus — 

“ Shure it’s a purty bit ye are ! Av there wos 
only wan or two more o’ yer family here, its me- 
self as ’u’d like to be made beknown to them. 
I’ll not ait ye yit. I’U look at ye for a little.” 

In pursuance of this luxurious plan, Briant laid 
the morsel of biscuit on the thwart of the boat 
before him, and taking out his pipe began to fill 

29 * 


342 


THE BED EEIC. 


it leisurely, keeping his eye all the time on the 
last bite. Just then Mr. Markham, who pulled 
the bow oar, called out — 

“ I say, Briant, hand me my tobacco-pouch, it’s 
beside you on the th’ort, close under the gun’le.” 

“ Is it ? ” said Briant, stretching out his hand 
to the place indicated, but keeping his eye fixed 
all the time on the piece of biscuit. “ Ah, here 
it is ; ketch it.” , 

For one instant, Briant looked at the second 
mate in order to throw the pouch with precision. 
That instant was sufficient for the exercise of 
Jacko’s dishonest propensities. The pouch was yet 
in its passage through the air, when a tremendous 
roar from Tim Rokens apprised the unhappy Irish- 
man of his misfortune. He did not require to be told 
to “ look-out ! ” although more than one voice gave 
him that piece of advice. An intuitive perception 
of irreparable loss flashed across his soul, and, with 
the speed of light, his eye was again on the thwart 
before him — but not on the morsel of biscuit. 
At that same instant Jacko sat down beside Ailie, 
with his usual serene aspect and swelled cheek ! 

Och, ye bottle imp ! ” yelled the bereaved one, 
“ don’t I know ye ! ” and seizing a tin pannikin, in 
his wrath, he threw it at the small monkey’s head 
with a force that would, had it been well-directed, 
have smashed that small head effectually. 

Jacko made a quick and graceful nod, and the 
pannikin, just missing Ailie, went over the side 


EXPENSIVE JOKING. 


343 


into the sea, where it sank, and was lost forever to 
the regret of all, for they could ill afford to lose it. 

“ Ye've got it, ye have, but ye shan’t ait it,” 
growled Briant through his teeth, as he sprang 
over the seat toward the monkey. 

Jacko bounded like a piece of India-rubber on 
to Gurney’s head ; next moment he was clinging 
to the edge of the mainsail, and the next he was 
comfortably seated on the top of the mast, where 
he proceeded calmly and leisurely to “ ait ” the bis- 
cuit in the face of its exasperated and rightful owner. 

“ Oh, Briant ! ” exclaimed Ailie, who was half- 
frightened, half-amused at the sudden convulsion 
caused by her favorite’s bad conduct, “ don’t be 
vexed ; see, here is a little bit of my biscuit ; I 
don’t want it — really I don’t.” 

Briant, who stood aghast and overwhelmed by 
his loss and by the consummate impudence of the 
small monkey, felt rebuked by this offer. Burst- 
ing into a loud laugh, he said, as he resumed his 
seat and the filling of his pipe, — 

“ Sure, I’d rather ait me own hat. Miss Ailie, 
an’ it’s be no means a good wan — without sarce, 
too, not even a blot o’ mustard — than take the 
morsel out o’ yer purty mouth. I wos more nor 
half jokin’, dear, an’ I ax yer parding for puttin’ 
ye in such a fright.” 

“ Expensive jokin’,” growled Tarquin, “ if ye 
throw a pannikin overboard every time you take 
to it.” 


344 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Kape your tongue quiet,” said Briant, redden 
ing, for he felt somewhat humbled at having given 
way to his anger so easily, and was nettled at the 
remark, coming as it did, in a sneering spirit, from 
a man for whom he had no particular liking. 

“ Never mind, Briant,” interposed the captain 
quickly, with a good-humored laugh ; “ I feel for 
you, lad. Had it been myself I fear I should 
have been even more exasperated. I would not 
seU a crumb of my portion just now for a guinea.” 

“ Neither would I,” added the doctor, “ for a 
thousand guineas.” 

“ m tell ye wot it is, lads,” remarked Tim Ro- 
kens ; “ I wish I only had a crumb to sell.” 

“ Now, Rokens, don’t be greedy,” cried Gurney. 

“ Greedy ! ” echoed Tim. 

“ Aye, greedy ; has any o’ you lads got a dick- 
shunairy to lend him ? Come, Jim Scroggles, 
you can tell him what it means — you’ve been 
to school, I b’lieve, haint you ? ” 

Rokens shook his head gravely. 

“ No, lad, I’m not greedy, but I’m ready for 
wittles. I wont go fur to deny that. Now, let 
me ax ye a question. Wot — supposin’ ye had 
the chance — would ye give, at this good min’it, 
for a biled leg o’ mutton ? ” 

“ With or without capers-sauce ? ” inquired 
Gurney. 

“ Wichever you please,” 

Och ! we wouldn’t need capers-sarse,” inter- 


oltnn’s proposal. 


345 


posed Briant ; “ av we only had the mutton, I’d 
cut enough o’ capers meself to do for the sarce, I 
would.” 

“ It matters little what you’d give,” cried 
Glynn, “ for we can’t get it at any price just now. 
Don’t you think, captain, that we might have 
our breakfast to-night ? It would save time in 
the morning, you know,” 

There was a general laugh at this proposal, 
yet there was a strong feeling in the minds of 
some, that if it were consistent with their rules 
to have breakfast served out then and there, they 
would gladly have consented to go without it 
next morning. 

Thus, with laugh, and jest, and good-natured 
repartee, did these men bear the pangs of hunger 
for many days. They were often silent during 
long intervals, and sometimes they became talka- 
tive and sprightly, but it was observed that, 
whether they conversed earnestly or jestingly, 
their converse ran for the most part on eating and 
drinking, and in their uneasy slumbers, during 
the intervals between the hours of work and 
watching, they almost invariably dreamed of food. 


346 


THE RED ERIC. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

Progress of the Long Voyage. — Story-telling and Journalizing. 

JVIany weeks passed away, but the Maid of 
the Isle still held on her course over the bound 
less ocean. 

' Day after day came and went, the sun rose in 
the east morning after morning, ran its appointed 
course, and sank, night after night, on the western 
horizon, but little else occurred to vary the mo- 
notony of that long, long voyage. When the sun 
rose, its bright rays leapt from the bosom of the 
ocean ; when it set, the same bosom of the great 
deep received its descending beams. No land, no 
sail appeared to the anxious gazers in that little 
boat, whicn seemed to move across, yet never to 
reach the boundaries of that mighty circle of 
water and sky, in the midst of which they lay en- 
chained as if by some wicked enchanter's speU. 

Breezes blew steadily at times and urged them 
swiftly on toward the circumference, but it fled as 
fast as they approached. Then it fell calm, and 
the weary men resumed their oars, and with heavy 
hearts and weakened arms tugged at the boat 
which seemed to have turned into a mass of lead. 
At such times a dead silence was maintained, for 
the work which once would have been to them 


SHORT ALLOWANCE BEGINS TO TELL. 347 

but child’s-play, had nowbecome severe and heavy 
labor. Still they did not murmur. Even the 
cross-grained Tarquin became subdued in spirit 
by the influence of the calm endurance and good- 
humor of his comrades. But the calms seldom 
lasted long. The winds, which happily continued 
favorable, again ruffled the surface of the sea, 
and sometimes blew so briskly as to oblige them 
to take in a reef or two in their sails. The oars 
were gladly drawn in, and the spirits of the men 
rose as the little boat bent over to the blast, lost 
her leaden qualities, and danced upon the broad- 
backed billows like a cork. There was no rain 
during all this time ; little or no stormy weather ; 
and but for their constant exposure to the hot sun 
by day and the cold chills by night, the time 
might have been said to pass even pleasantly, 
despite the want of a sufficiency of food. Thus 
day after day and night after night flew by, and 
week after week came and went, and still the 
Maid of the Isle held on her course over the 
boundless ocean. 

During all that time the one and a quarter ounces 
of salt junk and biscuit and the eighth of a pint of 
water were weighed and measured out to each 
man, three times a day, with scrupulous care and 
exactness, lest a drop or a crumb of the food that 
was more precious than diamonds should be lost. 
The men had all become accustomed to short 
allowance now, and experienced no greater iacon« 


348 


THE KED ERIC. 


venience than a feeling of lassitude, which feeling 
increased daily, but by such imperceptible degrees 
that they were scarcely conscious of it, and were 
only occasionally made aware of the great reduc- 
tion of their strength when they attempted to lift 
any article which, in the days of their fuU vigor, 
they could have tossed into the air, but which they 
could scarcely move now. When, however, the 
fair breeze enabled them to glide along under sad, 
and they lay enjoying complete rest, they ex- 
perienced no unwonted sensations of weakness ; 
their spirits rose, as the spirits of sailors always 
will rise when the waves are rippling at the bow 
and a white track forming in the wake ; and they 
spent the time — when not asleep — in cheerful 
conversation and in the spinning of long yarns. 
They did not sing, however, as might have been 
expected — they were too weak for that — they 
called the feeling “lazy,” some said they “ couldn’t 
be bothered” to sing. No one seemed willing fo 
admit that his strength was in reality abated. 

In story-teUing, the captain, the doctor, and 
Glynn shone conspicuous. And when all was 
going smoothly and well, the anecdotes, histories, 
and romances related by these three were listened 
to with such intense interest and delight by the 
whole crew, that one would have thought they 
were enjoying a pleasure trip, and had no cause 
whatever for anxiety. Gurney, too, and Briant, 
and Nikel SUng came out frequently in the 


STORY-TELLING. 


349 


story-telling line, and were the means of causing 
many and many an hour to pass quickly and 
pleasantly by, which would otherwise have hung 
heavily on the hands of all. 

Ailie Dunning was an engrossed and delighted 
listener at all times. She drank in every species 
of story with an avidity that was quite amusing. 
It seemed also to have been infectious, for even 
Jacko used to sit hour after hour looking steadily 
at each successive speaker, with a countenance so 
full of bright intelligence, and grave surpassing 
wisdom, as to lead one to the belief that he not 
only understood all that was said, but turned it 
over in his mind, and drew from it ideas and con- 
clusions far more bright and philosophical than 
could have been drawn therefrom by any human 
being, however wise or ingenious. 

He grinned, too, did Jacko, with an intensity 
and frequency that induced the sailors at first to 
call him a clever dog, in the belief that his per- 
ception of the ludicrous was very strong indeed; 
but as his grins were observed to occur quite as 
frequently at the pathetic and the grave as at the 
comical parts of the stories, they changed their ^ 
minds, and said he was a “ queer codger ” — in 
which remark they were i^doubtedly safe, seeing 
that it committed them to nothing very specific. 

Captain Dunning’s stories were, more properly 
speaking, histories, and were very much relished, 
for he possessed a natural power of relating what 
30 


350 


THE RED ERIC. 


he knew in an interesting manner and with a pe« 
culiarly pleasant tone of voice. Every one who 
has considered the subject at all must have ob- 
served what a powerful influence there lies in the 
mere manner and tone of a speaker. The captain’s 
voice was so rich, so mellow, and capable of such 
varied modulation, that the men listened with 
pleasure to the words which rolled from his lips, as 
one would listen to a sweet song. He became so 
deeply interested, too, in the subject about which 
he happened to be speaking, that his auditors 
could not help becoming interested also. He had 
no powers of eloquence, neither was he gifted with 
an unusually bright fancy. But he was fluent in 
speech, and his words, though not cbosen, were 
usually appropriate, The captain had no powers 
of invention whatever. He used to say, when 
asked to tell a story, that he “ might as weU try to 
play the fiddle with a handspike.” But this was 
no misfortune, for he had read much, and his 
memory was good, and supplied him with an end- 
less flow of smaU-talk on almost every subject that 
usually fdlls under the observation of sea-captains, 
and on many subjects besides, about which most 
sea^aptains, or land-captains, or any other cap- 
tains whatsoever, are afmost totally ignorant. 

Captain Dunning could teU of adventures in the 
whale-fishery, gone through either by himself or 
by friends, that would have made your two eyes 
stare out of their two sockets until they looked like 


STOKY-TELLING. 


351 


saucers (to use a common but not very correct 
simile). He could tell the exact latitude and 
longitude of almost every important and promi- 
nent part of the globe, and give the distance, 
pretty nearly, of any one places (on a large scale) 
from any other place. He could give the heights 
of all the chief mountains in the world to within a 
few feet, and could calculate, by merely looking at 
its current and depth, how many cubic feet of 
water any river delivered to the sea per minute. 
Length, breadth, and thickness, height, depth, and 
density, were subjects in which he revelled, and 
with which he played as a juggler does with 
golden balls ; and so great were his powers of 
numerical calculation, that the sailors often de- 
clared they believed he could work out any cal- 
culation backwards without the use of logarithms! 
He was constantly instituting comparisons that 
were by no means what the proverb terms “ odious,” 
but which were often very astonishing, and in all 
his stories so many curious and peculiar facts were 
introduced, that, as we have already said, they 
were very much relished indeed. 

Not less relished, however, were Glynn Proctor’s 
astounding and purely imaginative tales. ^ Ajter 
the men’s minds had been chained intently on one 
of the captain’s semi-philosophical anecdotes, they 
turned with infinite zest to one of Glynn’s outra- 
geous flights. Glynn had not read much in his 
short life, and his memory was nothing to boast of 


352 


THE RED ERIC. 


but his imagination was quite gigantic. He could 
invent almost any thing; and the curious part of it 
was, that he could do it out of nothing, if need be. 
He never took time to consider what he should 
say. When called on for a story he began at once, 
and it flowed from him like a flood of sparliling 
water from a fountain in fairy realms. Up in the 
clouds ; high in the blue ether ; down in the coral 
caves ; deep in the ocean waves ; out on the moun- 
tain heaths ; far in the rocky glens, or away in the 
wild woods green — it was all one to Glynn ; he 
leaped away in an instant, with a long train of 
adventurers at his heels — male and female, little 
and big, old and young, pretty and plain, grave and 
gay. And didn’t they go through adventures that 
would have made the hair of mortals not only 
stand on end, but fly out by the roots altogether ? 
Didn’t he make them talk, as mortals never talked 
before; and sing as mortals never dreamed of? 
And, oh! didn’t he just make them stew, and 
roast, and boil joints of savory meat, and bake 
pies, and tarts, and puddings, such as Soyer in his 
wildest culinary dreams never imagined, and such 
as caused the mouths of the crew of the Maid of 
the Isle to water, until they were constrained, poor 
fellows, to teU him to “ clap a stopper upon that,” 
and hold his tongue, for they “ couldn’t stand it ! ” 
Phil Briant and Gurney dealt in the purely 
comic line. They remarked — generally in an 
under tone — that they left poetr’’^ and prose to 


STORY-TELLING. 


353 


Glynn and the captain ; and it was as well they 
did, for their talents certainly did not lie in either of 
these directions. They came out strong after 
meals, when the weather was fine, and formed a 
species of light and agreeable interlude to the 
more weighty efforts of the captain and the 
brilliant sallies of Glynn. 

Gurney dealt in experiences chiefly, and usually 
endeavored by asseveration and iteration to im- 
press his hearers with the truth of facts said to 
have been experienced by himself, which, if true, 
would certainly have consigned him to a premature 
grave long ago. Briant, on the other hand, dealt 
largely in ghost stories, which he did not vouch 
for the truth of, but permitted his hearers to judge 
of for themselves — a permission which they would 
doubtless have taken for themselves at any rate. 

But tales and stories occupied, after all, only a 
small portion of the men’s time during that long 
voyage. Often, very often, they were too much 
exhausted to talk or even to listen, and when not 
obliged to labor at the oars they tried to sleep ; 
but “ Nature’s sweet restorer” did not always come 
at the first invitation, as was his wont in other days, 
and too frequently they were obliged to resume 
work unrefieshed. Their hands became hard and 
horny in the palms at last, like a man’s heel, and 
their backs and arms ached from constant work. 

Ailie kept in good health, but she, too, began to 
grow weak from want of proper nourishment. She 
30 * 


354 


THE RED ERIC. 


slept better than the men, for the comfortable 
sleeping-box that Glynn had constructed for her 
sheltered her from the heat, wet, and cold, to which 
the former were constantly exposed. She amused 
herself, when not listening to stories or asleep, by 
playing with her favorite, and she spent a good 
deal of time in reading her Bible — sometimes to 
herself, at other times, in a low tone, to her father 
as he sat at the helm. And many a time did she 
see a meaning in passages which, in happier times, 
had passed meaningless before her eyes, and often 
did she find sweet comfort in words that she had 
read with comparative indifference in former days. 

It is in the time of trial, trouble, and sorrow 
that the Bible proves to be a friend indeed. 
Happy the Christian who, when dark clouds over- 
whelm his soul, has a memory well stored with 
‘the comforting passages of the Word of God. 

But Ailie had another occupation which fiUed 
up much of her leisure, and proved to be a source 
of deep and engrossing interest at the time. This 
was the keeping of a journal of the voyage. On 
the last trip made to the wreck of the Red Eric, 
just before the great storm that completed the de- 
struction of that ship, the captain had brought 
away in his pocket a couple of note-books. One 
of these he kept to himself to jot down the chief 
incidents of the intended voyage; the other he 
gave to Ailie, along with a black-lead pencil. Be- 
ing fond of trying to write, she amused herself for 


ailie’s journal. 


355 


hours together in jotting down her thoughts about 
the various incidents of the voyage, great and 
small, and being a very good drawer for her age, 
she executed many fanciful and elaborate sketches, 
among which were innumerable portraits of Jacko 
and several caricatures of the men. This journal, 
as it advanced, became a source of much interest 
and amusement to every one in the boat ; and 
when, in an hour of the utmost peril, it, along with 
many other things, was lost, the men, after the 
danger was past, felt the loss severely. 

Thus they spent their time — now pleasantly, 
now sadly — sometimes becoming cheerful and 
hopeful, at other times sinking almost into a state 
of despair as their little stock of food and water 
dwindled down, while the Maid of the Isle still 
held on her apparently endless comrse over the 
great wide sea. 


356 


THE RED ERia 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Calm and the Stonn. — A Serious Loss and Great Gain. — Bird- 
catching extraordinary. — Saved at last. 

One day a deep death-like calm settled down 
upon the ocean. For some days before, the winds 
had been light and uncertain, and the air had been 
excessively warm. The captain cast uneasy glan- 
ces round him from time to time, and looked with 
a sadder countenance than usual on the haggard 
faces of the men as they labored slowly and silent- 
ly at the oars. 

“ I don’t know what this wdl turn to, doctor,” 
he said, in a low tone ; “ I don’t like the look of it” 

The doctor, who was perusing AiUe’s journal 
at the moment, looked up and shook his head. 

“ It seems to me, captain, that whatever hap- 
pens, matters cannot be made much worse.” 

“ You are wrong, doctor,” replied the captain, 
quietly ; we have still much to be thankful for.” 

“ Did you not tell me a few minutes ago that 
the water was almost done ? ” 

The doctor said this in a whisper, for the men 
had not yet been made aware of the fact. 

“ Yes, I did ; but it is not quite done ; that is 
matter for thankfulness.” 


FKESH WATER GETS LOW. 


357 


“ Oh, according to that principle,” observed the 
doctor, somewhat testily, “ you may say we have 
cause to be thankful for every things bad as well 
as good.” 

“ So we have ! so we have ! If every thing good 
were taken from us, and nothing left us but oui 
lives, we would have reason to be thankful for thal 
— thankful that we were stiU above ground, still 
in the land of hope, with salvation to our immortal 
souls through Jesus Christ freely offered for our 
acceptance.” 

The doctor made no reply. He thought the cap- 
tain a little weak in the matter of religion. If re- 
ligion is false, his opinion of the captain no doubt 
was right, but if true, surely the weakness lay aU 
the other way. 

That morning the captain’s voice in prayer was 
more earnest, if possible, than usual, and he put 
up a special petition for water ^ which was observed 
by the men with feelings of great anxiety, and 
responded to with a deep amen. After morning 
worship the scales were brought, and the captain 
proceeded to weigh out the scanty meal, while the 
men watched his every motion with an almost 
wolfish glare, that told eloquently of the prolonged 
sufferings they had endured. Even poor Aifie’s 
gentle face now wore a sharp, anxious expression 
when food was being served out, and she accepted 
her small portion with a nervous haste that was 
deeply painful and touching to witness. She little 


358 


THE RED ERIC. 


knew, poor child, that that portion of bread and 
meat and water, small though it was, was larger 
than that issued to the men, being increased by a 
small quantity deducted from the captain’s own al- 
lowance and an equal amount from that of Glynn. 
The latter had noticed the captain’s habit of 
regularly calling off the child’s attention during the 
distribution of each meal, for the purpose of thus 
increasing her portion at the expense of his own, 
and in a whispering conversation held soon after 
he insisted that a Little of his allowance should also 
be transferred to her. At first the captain firmly 
refused, but Glynn said that if he did not accede 
to his wish he would hand over the whole of his 
portion in future to the monkey, let the result be 
what it might ! As Glynn never threatened with 
out a full and firm resolve to carry out his threats, 
the captain was compelled to give in. 

, When the water came to be served out that morn- 
ing the captain paused, and looking round at the 
anxious eyes that were riveted upon him, said : 

“ My lads, it has pleased the Almighty to lay 
His hands still heavier on us. May He who has 
said that He will not suffer men to be tempted 
above what they are able to bear, give us strength 
to stand it. Our water is almost done. We must 
be content with a quarter of our usual allowance.” 

This information was received in deep silence 
— perhaps it was the silence of despair, for the 
quantity hitherto served out had been barely suf- 


.TACKO DOOMED. 


359 


idcient to moisten their parched throats, and they 
knew that they could not exist long on tne re- 
duced allowance. 

Jacko came with the rest as usual for his share, 
and held out his little hand for the tin cup in 
which his few drops of water were wont to be 
handed to him. The captain hesitated and 
looked at the men ; then he poured out a few 
drops of the precious liquid. For the first time 
a murmur of disapproval was heard. 

“ It’s only a brute-beast ; the monkey must die 
before us^' said a voice which was so hollow ano 
changed that it could scarcely be recognized as^ 
that of Tarquin, the steward. 

No one else said a word. The captain did no. 
even look up to see who had spoken. He felt tht 
justice as well as the harshness of the remark 
and poured the water back into the jar. 

Jacko seemed puzzled at first, and held out his 
hand again ; then he looked round on the men 
with that expression of unutterable woe which is 
peculiar to some species of the monkey tribe. 
He seemed to feel that something serious was 
about to happen to him. Looking up in the sad 
face of his young mistress, he uttered a very gen- 
tle and plaintive “ oo-oo-ee ! ” 

Ailie burst into a passionate flood of tears, and 
in the impulse of the moment handed her own 
cup which she had not tasted to Jack, who 
drained it in a twinkling — before the captain 
could snatch it from his hands. 


36b 


THE KED ERIC. 


Having emptied it, Jacko went forward, as he 
had been taught to do, and handed back the cup 
with quite a pleased expression of countenance 
— for he was easily satisfied, poor thing ! 

“ You should not have done that, my darling,” 
said the captain, as he gave Ailie another portion 

“ Dear papa, I couldn’t help it,” sobbed the 
child ; “ indeed I couldn’t — and you need not 
give me any. I can do without it to-day.” 

“ Can you ? But you shan’t,” exclaimed 
Glynn, with a degree of energy that would have 
made every one laugh in happier times. 

“ No, no, my own pet,” replied the captain, 
“ you shan’t want it. Here, you must drink it, 
come.” 

From that day Jacko received his allowance 
regularly as long as a drop of water was left, and 
no one again murmured against it. When it 
was finished he had to suffer with the rest. 

The calm which had set in proved to be of 
longer duration than usual, and the sufferings of 
the crew of the little boat became extreme. On 
the third day after its commencement, the last drop 
of water was served out. It amounted to a couple 
of teaspoonfuls per man each meal, of which there 
were three a day. During the continuance of the 
calm, the sun shone in an almost cloudless sky and 
beat down upon the heads of the men until it drove 
them nearly mad. They all looked like living 
skeletons, and their eyes glared from their sunken 


EXTEEME SUEEEEINGS OF THE CEEW. *6bi 


sockets with a dry fiery lustre that was absolutely 
terrible to behold. Had each one in that boat 
possessed millions of gold he would have given 
all, gladly, for one drop of firesh water ; but, alas ! 
nothing could purchase water there. Ailie thought 
upon the man who, in the Bible, is described as 
looldng up to heaven from the depths of hell and 
crying for one drop of water to cool his tongue, 
and she fancied that she could now realize his 
agony. The captain looked up into the hot sky, 
but no blessed cloud appeared there to raise the 
shadow of a hope. He looked down at the sea, 
and it seemed to mock him with its clear blue 
depths, which looked so sweet and pleasant. He 
realized the fuU significance of that couplet in 
Coleridge’s ‘‘ Ancient Mariner : ” 

“ Water, water everywhere, 

But not a drop to drink ; ” 

and drawing Ailie to his breast, he laid his 
cheek upon hers, and groaned aloud. 

“We shall soon be taken away, dear papa,” 
she said — and she tried to weep, but the tears 
that came unbidden and so easily at other times 
to her bright blue eyes refused to flow now. 

The men had one by one ceased to ply their 
useless oars, and the captain did not take notice 
of it, for he felt that unless God sent relief in 
some almost miraculous way, their continuing to 
row would be of no avail. It would only in- 
81 


362 


THE RED ERIC. 


crease their agony without advancing them more 
than a few miles on the long, long voyage that 
he knew still lay before them. 

“ O God, grant us a breeze ! ” cried Mr. Mil- 
Ions, in a deep, tremulous tone, breaking a si- 
ence that had continued for some hours. 

Messmates,” said Tim Rokens, who for some 
time had leaned with both elbows on his oar and 
his face buried in his hands, wot d’ye say to a 
bath. I do believe it ’ud do us good.” 

“ P’raps it would,” replied King Bumble ; but 
he did not move, and the other men made no re- 
ply, while Rokens again sank forward. 

Gurney and Tarquin had tried to relieve their 
thirst the day before by drinking sea-water, but 
their inflamed and swollen throats and lips now 
showed that the relief sought had not been ob- 
tained. 

“ It’s time for supper,” said the captain, raising 
his head suddenly, and laying Ailie down, for she 
had fallen into a lethargic slumber ; “ fetch me the 
bread and meat can.” 

Dick Barnes obeyed reluctantly, and the usual 
small allowance of salt junk was weighed out, but 
there were no eager glances now. Most of the 
crew refused to touch food — one or two tried to 
eat a morsel of biscuit without success. 

“ I’ll try a swim,” cried Glynn, suddenly starting 
up with the intention of leaping overboard. But 
his strength was more exhausted than he had 


TEERIBLE EFFECTS OF THIRST. 


363 


fancied, for he only fell against the side of the boat . 
It was as well that he failed. Had he succeeded 
in getting into the water, he could not have clam- 
bered in again, and it is doubtful whether his 
comrades had sufficient strength left to have drag- 
ged him in. 

“ Try it this way, lad,” said Tim Rokens, taking 
up a bucket, and dipping it over the side. “ P’raps 
it’ll do as well.” 

He raised the bucket with some difficulty and 
poured its contents over Glynn’s head. 

“ Thank God ! ” said Glynn, with a deep, long- 
drawn sigh. “Do it again, Tim, do it again. 
That’s it — again, again ! No, stop, forgive my 
selfishness ; here, give me the bucket. I’ll do it to 
you now.” 

Tim Rokens was quickly drenched from head to 
foot, and felt great and instantaneous relief. In a 
few minutes every one in the boat, Jacko included, 
was subjected to this species of cold bath, and their 
spirits rose at once. Some of them even began 
to eat their food, and Briant actually attempted 
to perpetrate a joke, which Gurney seconded 
promptly, but they failed to make one, even a 
bad one, between them. 

Although the cold bathing seemed good for them 
at first, it soon proved to be hurtful. Sitting and 
lying constantly night and day in saturated clothes 
had the effect of rendering their skins painfully 
sensitive, and a feverish feeling was often alter 


364 


THE RED ERIC. 


nated with cold shivering fits, so they were fain to 
give it up. Still they had found some slight relief, 
and they bore their sufferings with calm resigna- 
tion — a state of mind which was fostered, if not 
induced, by the blessed words of comfort and hope 
which the captain read to them from the Bible 
as frequently as his strength would permit, and to 
which they listened with intense, all-absorbing 
interest. 

It is ever thus with men. When death ap- 
proaches, in almost aU instances, we are ready — 
ay, anxious — to listen with the deepest interest to 
God’s message of salvation through His Son, and 
to welcome and long for the influences of the Holy 
Spirit. Oh ! how happy should we be, in life and 
in death, did we only give heartfelt interest to our 
souls’ affairs before the days of sorrow and death 
arrive. 

On the fifth morning after the water had been 
exhausted the sun arose in the midst of dark 
clouds. The men could scarcely believe their eyes. 
They shouted, and, in their weakness, laughed 
for joy. 

The blessing was not long delayed. Thick 
vapors veiled the red sun soon after it emerged 
from the sea, then a few drops of rain fell. Blessed 
drops ! How the men caught at them ! How 
they spread out oUed cloths and tarpaulins and 
garments to gather them ! How they grudged to 
see them falling around the boat into the sea, and 


HOPE REVIVES. 


365 


being lost to them forever. But the blessing was 
soon sent liberally. The heavens above grew black, 
and the rain came down in thick heavy showers. 
The tarpaulins were quickly filled, and the men 
lay with their lips to the sweet pools, drinking in 
new life, and dipping their heads and hands in the 
cool liquid when they could drink no more. Their 
thirst was slaked at last, and they were happy. 
All their past sufferings were forgotten in that 
great hour of relief, and they looked, and laughed, 
and spoke to each other like men who were saved 
from death. As they stripped off their garments 
and washed the encrusted salt from their shrunken 
limbs, all of them doubtless felt, and some of them 
audibly expressed, gratitude to the “ Giver of 
every good and perfect gift.’’ 

So glad were they, and so absorbed in their oc- 
cupation, that they thought not of and cared not 
for the fact that a great storm was about to break 
upon them. It came upon them almost before 
they were aware, and before the sails could be 
taken in the boat was almost upset. 

“ Stand by to lower the sails ! ” shouted the 
captain, who was the first to see their danger. 

The old familiar command issued with some- 
thing of the old familiar voice and energy caused 
every one to leap to his post, if not with the agility 
of former times, at least with all the good-will. 

Let go ! ” 

The halyards were loosed, and the sails came 
31 * 


366 


THE BED ERIC. 


tumbling down ; at the same moment the squall 
burst on them. The Maid of the Isle bent over so 
quickly that every one expected she would upset ; 
the blue water curled in over the edge of the gun- 
wale, and the foam burst from her bows at the 
rude shock. Then she hissed through the water 
as she answered the helm, righted quickly, and 
went tearing away before the wind at a speed that 
she had not known for many days. It was a nar- 
row escape. The boat was nearly filled with water, 
and, worst of all, the provision-can, along with 
Aide’s sleeping box, were washed overboard and 
lost. 

It was of no use attempting to recover them. 
All the energies of the crew were required to 
bale out the water and keep the boat afloat, and 
during the whole storm some of them were con- 
stantly employed in baling. For three days it 
blew a perfect hurricane, and during all that time 
the men had nothing whatever to eat ; but they 
did not suffer so much as might be supposed 
The gnawing pangs of hunger do not usually 
last beyond a few days when men are starving. 
After that they merely feel ever-increasing weak- 
ness. During the faU of the rain they had taken 
care to fill their jars, so that they had now a good 
supply of water. 

After the first burst of the squall had passed, 
the tarpaulins were spread over the boat, and 
under one of these, near the stern, Ailie was 


FAILING STRENGTH. 


367 


placed, and was comparatively sheltered and 
comfortable. Besides forming a shelter for the 
men while* they slept, these tarpaulins threw off 
the waves that frequently broke over the boat, 
and more than once bid fair to sink her alto- 
gether. The sea rose in enormous billows, and 
the gale was so violent tliat only the smallest 
corner of the foresail could be raised — even that 
was almost sufficient to tear away the mast. 

At length the gale blew itself out, and gradu- 
ually decreased to a moderate breeze, before 
which the sails were shaken out, and on the 
fourth morning after it broke they found them- 
selves sweeping quickly over the waves on their 
homeward way, but without a morsel of food, 
and thoroughly exhausted in body and in mind. 

On that morning, however, they passed a piece 
of floating seaweed, a sure indication of their 
approach to land. Captain Dunning pointed it 
out to Ailie and the crew with a cheering re- 
mark that they would probably soon get to the 
end of their voyage ; but he did not feel much 
hope ; for, without food, they could not exist 
above a few days more at the furthest — perhaps 
not so long. That same evening several small 
sea-birds came toward the boat, and flew inquir- 
ingly round it, as if they wondered what it could 
be doing there, so far away from the haunts oi men. 
These birds were evidently unaccustomed to man, 
for they exhibited little fear. They came so near 


368 


THE RED ERIC. 


to the boat that one of them was at length caught 
It was the negro who succeeded in knocking it 
on the head with a boathook as it flew past. 

Great was the praise bestowed on King Bum- 
ble for this meritorious deed, and loud were the 
praises bestowed on the bird itself, which was 
carefully divided into equal portions (and a small 
portion for Jacko), and eaten raw. Not a morsel 
of it was lost — claws, beak, blood, bones, and 
feathers — all were eaten up. In order to prevent 
dispute or jealousy, the captain made Ailie turn 
her back on the bird when thus divided, and 
pointing to the different portions, he said : “ Who 
shall have this ? ” Whoever was named by Ailie 
had to be content with what thus fell to his share. 

“ Ah, but ye was always an onlucky dog ! 
exclaimed Briant, to whom feU the head and 
claws. 

“ YeVe no reason to grumble,” replied Gm*- 
ney ; ye’ve got all the brains to yerself, and no 
one needs them more.” 

The catching of this bird was the saving of 
the crew, and it afforded them a good deal of 
mirth in the dividing of it. The heart and a 
small part of the breast fell to Ailie — which 
every one remarked was singularly appropriate ; 
part of a leg and the tail fell to King Bumble ; 
and the lungs and stomach became the property 
of Jim Scroggles, whereupon Briant remarked 
that he would “ think as much almost o’ that stom- 


A SMALL SEA-BIRD CAUGHT. 


369 


ach as he had iver done of his own ! ” But there 
was much of sadness mingled with their mirth, for 
they felt that the repast was a peculiarly light one, 
and they had scarcely strength left to laugh or jest. 

Next morning they knocked down another bird, 
and in the evening they got two more. The day 
after that they captured an albatross, which fur- 
nished them at last with an ample supply of fresh 
food. 

It was Mr. Markham, the second mate, who 
first saw the great bird looming in the distance, 
as it sailed over the sea toward them. 

“ Let’s try to fish for him,” said the doctor. 
“ I’ve heard of sea-birds being caught in that way 
before now.” 

“ Fish for it ! ” exclaimed Ailie, in surprise. 

“ Ay, with hook and line, Ailie.” 

‘‘ I’ve seen it done often,” said the captain. 
‘‘ Hand me the line. Bumble, and a bit o’ that 
bird we got yesterday. Now for it.” 

By the time the hook was baited, the albatross 
had approached near to the boat, and hovered 
round it with that curiosity which seems to be a 
characteristic feature of all sea-birds. It was an 
enormous creature ; but Ailie, when she saw it 
in the air could not have believed it possible that 
it was so large as it was afterwards found to be 
on being measured. 

“ Here, Glynn, catch hold of the line,” said the 
captain, as he threw the hook overboard, and aJ 


370 


THE RED ERIC, 


lowed it to trail astern ; “ you are the strongest 
man amongst us now, I think ; starvation don’t 
seem to tell so much on your young flesh and 
bones as on ours ! ” 

“ No ; it seems to agree with his constitution,” 
remarked Gurney. 

“ It’s me that wouldn’t give much for his flesh,” 
observed Briaiit ; ‘‘ but his skin and bones would 
fetch a good price in the leather and rag market.” 

While his messmates were thus fleely remark- 
ing on his personal appearance — which, to say 
truth, was dreadfully haggard, Glynn was hold- 
ing the end of the line, and watching the motions 
of the albatross with intense interest. 

“ He wont take it,” observed the captain. 

“ Me tink him will,” said Bumble. 

“ No go,” remarked Nikel Sling, sadly. 

“ That was near,” said the first mate, eagerly, as 
the bird made a bold sweep down toward the bait, 
which was skipping over the surface of the water. 

“ No, he’s olf,” cried Mr. Markham, in despair. 

“ Cotched ! or I’m a Dutchman ! ” shouted 
Gurney. 

“ No ! ” cried Jim Scroggles. 

“ Yes ! ” screamed Ailie. 

“ Hurrah ! ” shouted Tim Rokens and Tarquin 
in a breath. 

Dick Barnes, and the doctor, and the captain, 
and, in short, everybody, echoed the last senti- 
ment, and repeated it again and again with de- 


CATCHING AN ALBATROSS. 


371 


light, as they saw the gigantic bird once again 
swoop down upon the bait and seize it 

Glynn gave a jerk, the hook caught in its 
tongue, and the albatross began to tug, and 
swoop, and whirl madly in its efforts to escape. 

Now, to talk of any ordinary bird swooping, an<2 
fluttering, and tugging, does not sound ver} 
tremendous ; but, reader, had you witnessed tht 
manner in which that enormous albatross con- 
ducted itself, you wouldn’t have stared witb 
amazement — oh, no ! You wouldn’t have gont 
home with your mouth as wide open as your eyes 
and have given a gasping account of what you 
had seen — by no means ! You wouldn’t have 
talked of feathered steam-engines, or of fabled rocs, 
or of winged elephants in the air — certainly not 1 

Glynn’s arms jerked as if he were holding on to 
the sheet of a shifting mainsail of a seventy-four. 

“ Bear a hand,” he cried, “ else I’ll be torn to 
bits.” 

Several hands grasped the line in a moment. 

“ My ! wot a wopper,” exclaimed Tim Rokehs. 

“ Och ! don’t he pull ? Wot a fortin he’d make 
av he’d only set hisself up as a tug-boat in the 
Thames ! ” 

“ If we only had him at the oar for a week,” 
added Gurney. 

“ Hoich ! doctor, have ye strength to set dis- 
jointed hmbs ? ” 

“ Have a care, lads,” cried the captain, in soma 


THE RED ERIC. 


rt72 


anxiety ; “ give him more play, the line wont stand 
it. Time enough to jest after we’ve got him.” 

The bird was now swooping, and waving, and 
beating its great wings so close to the boat that 
they began to entertain some apprehension lest 
any of the crew should be disabled by a stroke 
from them before the bird could be secured. 
Glynn, therefore, left the management of the line 
to others, and taking up an oar, tried to strike it. 
But he failed in several attempts. 

“ Wait till we haul him nearer, boy,” said the 
captain. “ Now, then ! ” 

Glynn struck again, and succeeded in hitting 
it a slight blow. At the same instant the alba- 
tross swept over the boat, and almost knocked 
the doctor overboard. As it brushed past. King 
Bumble, who was gifted with the agility of a 
monkey, leaped up, caught it round the neck, and 
the next moment the two were rolling together 
in the bottom of the boat. 

The creature was soon strangled, and a mighty 
cheer greeted this momentous victory. 

We are not aware that albatross flesh is gen- 
erally considered very desirable food, but we are 
certain that starving men are particularly glad to 
get it, and that the supply now obtained by the 
wrecked mariners was the means of preserving 
their lives until they reached the land, which they 
did ten days afterwards, having thus accomplished 
a voyage of above two thousand miles over the 


SAFE ASHORE. 


373 


ocean in an open boat in the course of eight weeks, • 
and on an amount of food that was barely suffi- 
cient for one or two weeks’ ordinary consumption. 

Great commiseration was expressed for them 
by the people at the Cape, who vied with each 
other in providing for their wants, and in showing 
them kindness. 

Ailie and her father were carried off bodily by 
a stout old merchant, with a broad, kind face, 
and a hearty, boisterous manner, and lodged in 
his elegant vdla during their stay in that quarter 
of the world, which was protracted some time in 
order that they might recruit the wasted strength 
of the party ere they commenced their voyage 
home in a vessel belonging to the same stout, 
broad-faced, and vociferous merchant. 

Meanwhile, several other ships departed for 
America, and by one of these Captain Dunning 
wrote to his sisters Martha and Jane. The cap- 
tain never wrote to Martha or to Jane separately 
— he always wrote to them conjointly as “ Mar- 
tha Jane Dunning.” 

The captain was a peculiar letter-writer. 
Those who may feel curious to know more about 
this matter, are referred for further information 
to the next chapter. 



89 


374 


THE BED ERIC. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

Home, sweet Home ! — The Captain takes his Sisters by 
Surprise. — A Mysterious Stranger. 

It is a fact which we cannot deny, however 
much we may feel disposed to marvel at it, that 
laughter and weeping, at one and the same time, 
are compatible. The most resolute sceptic on 
this point would have been convinced of the 
truth of U had he been introduced into the Misses 
Martha and Jane Dunning’s parlor on the beau- 
tiful summer morning in which the remarkable 
events we are about to relate occurred. 

On the morning in question, a letter-carrier 
walked up to the cottage with the yellow painted 
face, and with the green door, so like a nose in the 
middle ; and the window on each side thereof, so 
like its eyes ; and the green Venetian blinds, that 
served so admirably for eyelids, attached thereto ^ — 
aU of which stood, and beamed, and luxuriated, 
and vegetated, and grew old in the centre of the 
town on the eastern sea-board of America, whose 
name (for strictly private reasons) we have firmly 
declined, and do stiU positively refuse to com- 
municate. 

Having walked up to the cottage, the letter- 
carrier hit it a severe smash on its green nose, as 


THE AUNTS AGAIN. 


375 


good Captain Dunning had done many, many 
months before. The result now, as then, was the 
opening thereof by a servant-girl — the servant-girl 
of old. The letter-carrier was a taciturn man ; he 
said nothing, but handed in the letter, and went 
his way. The servant-girl was a morose damsel ; 
she said nothing, but took the letter, shut the door, 
and laid it (the letter, not the door) on the break- 
fast-table, and went her way — which way was the 
way of all flesh, fish, and fowl — namely, the 
kitchen, where breakfast was being prepared. 

Soon after the arrival of the letter Miss Jane 
Dunning — having put on an immaculately clean 
white collar and a spotlessly beautiful white cap 
with pink ribbons, which looked, if possible, taller 
than usual — descended to the breakfast-parlor. 
Her eye instantly fell on the letter, and she ex- 
claimed — 

“ Oh! ’’ at the full pitch of her voice. Indeed, 
did not respect for the good lady forbid, we would 
say that she yelled “ Oh ! ” 

Instantly, as if by magic, a faint “ oh ! ” came 
down stairs like an echo, from the region of Miss 
Martha Dunning’s bedroom, and was followed up 
by a “ What is it ? ” so loud that the most unimagi- 
native person could not have faded to perceive that 
the elder sister had opened her door and put hei 
head over the banisters. 

“ What is it ? ” repeated Miss Martheu 
“ A letter ! ” answered Miss Jane. 


376 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Who from ? (in eager surprise, from above) 

“ Brother George ! ” (in eager delight, from be 
low). 

Miss Jane had not come to this knowledge be- 
cause of having read the letter, for it still lay on 
the table unopened, but because she could not 
read it at all ! One of Captain Dunning’s pecu- 
liarities was that he wrote an execrably bad and 
illegible hand. His English was good, his spelling 
pretty fair, considering the absurd nature of the 
orthography of his native tongue, and his sense 
was excellent, but the whole was usually shrouded 
in hieroglyphical mystery. Miss Jane could only 
read the opening “ My dearest Sisters,” and the 
concluding “ George Dunning,” nothing more. 
But Miss Martha could, by the exercise of some 
rare power, spell out her brother’s hand, though 
not without much difficulty. 

“ I’m coming,” shouted Miss Martha. 

“ Be quick I ” screamed Miss Jane. 

In a few seconds Miss Martha entered the room 
with her cap and collar, though faultlessly clean 
and stiff, put on very much awry. 

“ Give it me ! Where is it ? ” 

Miss Jane pointed to the letter, still remaining 
transfixed to the spot where her eye had first met 
it, as if it were some dangerous animal which 
would bite if she touched it. 

Miss Martha snatched it up, tore it open, and 
flopped down on the sofa. Miss Jane snatched 


THE LETTER. 


377 


lip an imaginary letter, tore it open (in imagina* 
tion),and flopping down beside her sister, looked 
over her shoulder, apparently to make believe to 
herself that she read it along with her. Thus 
they read and commented on the captain’s letter 
n concert. 

“ ‘ Table Bay ’ — dear me ! what a funny bay 
that must be — ‘ My dearest Sisters ’ — the dar- 
ling fellow, he always begins that way, don’t he, 
Jane dear?” — “Bless him! he does, Martha 
dear.” — “ ‘ We’ve been — all ’ — I can’t make 
this word out, can you, dear ? ” — “No, love.” — 
“ ‘ We’ve been all — worked ! ’ no, it can’t be that 
Stay, ‘ We’ve been all wrecked 

Here Martha laid down the letter with a look 
of horror, and Jane, with a face of ashy paleness, 
exclaimed, “ Then they’re lost.” 

“ But no,” cried Martha, “ George could not 
have written to us from Tablecloth Bay had he 
been lost.” 

“ Neither he could ! ” exclaimed Jane, eagerly. 

Under the influence of the revulsion of feeling 
this caused, Martha burst into tears and Jane into 
laughter. Immediately after, Jane wept and 
Martha laughed ; then they both laughed and cried 
together, after which they felt for their pocket- 
handkerchiefs, and discovered that in their haste 
they had forgotten them ; so they had to caU the 
servant-girl and send her up stairs for them ; and 
when the handkerchiefs were brought, they had to 
32 * 


378 


THE RED ERIC. 


be unfolded before the sisters could dry their eyes. 
When they had done so, and were somewhat com- 
posed, they went on with the reading of the 
letter : 


“ ‘ WeVe been all wrecked ’ — Dreadful ! — 
< and the poor Red Angel ’ — Oh ! it can’t be that, 
Martha dear ! ” — “ Indeed, it looks very like it, 
Jane darling. Oh ! I see ; it’s Eric ” — ‘ and the 
poor Red Eric has been patched,’ or — ‘ pitched 
on a rock and smashed to sticks and stivers ’ — 
Dear me ! what can that be ? I know what ‘ sticks ’ 
are, but I can’t imagine what ‘ stivers ’ mean. 
Can you, Jane ? ” — “ Haven’t the remotest idea ; 
perhaps Johnson, or Walker, or Webster may — 
yes, Webster is sure to.” — “ Oh ! never mind 
just now, dear Jane, we can look it up afterwards 
— ‘ stivers — sticks and stivers’ — something very 
dreadful, I fear. — ‘ But we’re aU safe and well 
now ’ — I’m so thankful I — ‘ and we’ve been 
stumped ’ — No — ‘ starved nearly to death, too. 
My poor Aihe was thinner than ever I saw her 
before ’ — This is horrible, dear Jane.” — “ Dread- 
ful, darling Martha.” — “‘But she’s milk and 
butter ’ — It can’t be that — ‘ milk and ’ — oh ! — 
‘much better now.’ ” 

At this point Martha laid down the letter, and 
the two sisters wept for a few seconds in silence. 

“ Darling Ailie ! ” said Martha, drying her eyes, 
how thin she must have been ! ” 

“ Ah ! yes, and no one to take in her frocks.” 


THE LETTER. 


379 


“ ‘ We’ll be home in less than no time,’ ” con- 
tinued Martha, reading, ‘‘ ‘ so you may get ready 
for us. Glynn wUl have tremendous long yarns 
to spin to you when we come back, and so will 
Ailie. She has seen a Lotofun since we left you ’ 

— Bless me ! what can that be, Jane ? ” — “ Very 
likely some terrible sea monster, Martha; how 
thankful we ought to be that it did not eat her ! 

— ‘ seen a Lotofun ’ — strange ! — a Lot — o’ — 
Oh ! — -Hot o’ fim ! ’ — that’s it ! how stupid of 
me ! — ‘ and my dear pet has been such an ass ’ 

— Eh ! for shame, brother. Don’t you think, dear 

Martha, that there’s some more of that word on 
the next line ? ” “ So there is. I’m so stupid — 

‘istance’ — It’s not rightly divided, though — 
‘as-sistance and a comfort to me.’ I knew it 
couldn’t be ass.” “ So did I. Ailie an ass ! 
precious child ! — ‘ Now, good-by t’ye, my dear 
lassies, 

“ ‘ Ever your affectionate brother, 

“ (Dear fellow !) 

“ ‘ George Dunning,’ ” 

Now it chanced that the ship which conveyed 
the above letter across the Atlantic was a slow 
sailer and was much delayed by contrary winds. 
And it also chanced — for odd coincidences do 
happen occasionally in human affairs — that the 
vessel in which Captain Dunning with Aihe and 
his crew embarked some weeks later was a fast 


380 


THE RED ERIC. 


sailing ship, and was blown across the sea with 
strong favoring gales. Hence it fell out that the 
first vessel entered port on Sunday night, and 
the second cast anchor in the same port on Mon- 
day morning. 

The green painted door, therefore, of the yellow- 
faced cottage had scarcely recovered from the as- 
sault of the letter-carrier, when it was again struck 
violently by the impatient Captain Dunning. 

Miss Martha, who had just concluded and re- 
folded the letter, screamed “ Oh ! ” and leaped up. 

Miss Jane did the same, with this difference, 
that she leaped up before screaming “ Oh ! ” in- 
stead of after doing so. Then both ladies, hear- 
ing voices outside, rushed toward the door of 
the parlor with the intention of flying to their 
room and there carefully arranging their tall 
white caps and clean white collars, and keeping 
the early visitor, whoever he or she might be, 
waiting fully a quarter of an hour or twenty min- 
utes, before they should descend, stiffly, starchly, 
and ceremoniously, to receive him — or her. 

These intentions were frustrated by the servant, 
girl, who opened the green-painted door and let 
in the captain, who rushed into the parlor and 
rudely kissed his speechless sisters. 

“ Can it be ? ” gasped Martha. 

Jane had meant to gasp “ Impossible ! ’’ but 
seeing Ailie at that moment bound into Martha’s 
arms, she changed her intention, uttered a loud 
scream instead, and fell down flat upon the flooi 


THE MEETING. 


381 


under the impression that she had fainted. Find 
ing, however, that this was not the case, she got 
up again quickly — ignorant of the fact that the 
tall cap had come off altogether in the fall — and 
stood before her sister weeping, and laughing, and 
wringing her hands, and waiting for her turn. 

But it did not seem likely to come soon, foi 
Martha continued to hug Ailie, whom she had 
raised entirely from the ground, with passionate 
fervor. Seeing this, and feeling that to wait was 
impossible, Jane darted forward, threw her arms 
round Ailie — including Martha, as an unavoida- 
ble consequence — and pressed the child’s back 
to her throbbing bosom. 

Between the two, poor Ailie was nearly suffo- 
cated. Indeed, she was compelled to scream, not 
because she wished to, but because Martha and 
Jane squeezed a scream out of her. The scream 
acted on the former as a reproof. She resigned 
Ailie to Jane, flung herself recklessly on the sofa, 
and kicked. 

Meanwhile, Captain Dunning stood looking 
on, rubbing his hands, slapping his thighs, and 
blowing his nose. The servant-girl also stood 
looking on doing nothing — her face was a per- 
fect blaze of amazement. 

“ Girl,” said the captain, turning suddenly to- 
ward her, “ is breakfast ready ? 

“ Yes ! ” gasped the girl. 

Then fetch it.” 

The girl did not move. 


382 


THE RED ERIC. 


D’ye hear ? ” cried the captain. 

“ Ye — es.” 

“ Then look alive.” 

The captain followed this up with a roar and 
such an indescribably ferocious demonstration, 
that the girl fled in terror to the culinary regions, 
where she found the cat breakfasting on a pat of 
butter. The girl yelled, and flung first a sauce- 
pan, and after that the lid of a tea-pot at the 
thief. She failed, of course, in this eflbrt to com- 
mit murder, and the cat vanished. 

Breakfast was brought, but, excepting in the 
captain’s case, breakfast was not eaten. What 
between questioning, and crying, and hysterical 
laughing, and replying, and gasping, explaining, 
misunderstanding, exclaiming, and choking, the 
other members of the party that breakfasted that 
morning in the yellow cottage with the much- 
abused green door, did little else than upset tea- 
cups and cream-pots, and sputter eggs about, and 
otherwise make a mess of the once immaculate 
table-cloth. 

“ Oh, Aunt Martha ! ” exclaimed Ailie, in the 
midst of a short pause in the storm, “ I’m so very, 
very, very glad to be home ! ” 

The child said this with intense fervor. No 
one but he who has been long, long away from 
the home of his hildhood, and has come back 
after having des| ired of ever seeing it again, 
can imagine with what deep fervor she said it, 
and then burst into tears. 


THE BREAKFAST. 


383 


Aunt Jane at that moment was venturing to 
swallow her first mouthful of tea, so she gulped 
and choked, and Aunt Martha spent the next five 
minutes in violently beating the poor creature’s 
back, as if she deemed choking a serious offence 
which merited severe punishment. As for the 
captain, that unfeeling monster went on grinning 
fi:om ear to ear, and eating a heavy breakfast, as 
if nothing had happened. But a close observer 
might have noticed a curious process going on 
at the starboard side of his weather-beaten nose. 

In one of his many desperate encounters with 
whales. Captain Dunning had had the end of a 
harpoon thrust accidentally into the prominent 
member of his face just above the bridge. A 
permanent little hole was the result, and on the 
morning of which we write, a drop of water got 
into that hole continually, and when it rolled out 
— which it did about once every two minutes — 
and fell into the captain’s tea-cup, it was speedily 
replaced by another drop which trickled into the 
depths of that small cavern on the starboard side 
of the captain’s nose. We don’t pretend to ac- 
count for that curious phenomenon. We merely 
record the fact. 

While the breakfast party were yet in this 
April mood, a knock was heard at the outer door. 

“ Visitors ! ” said Aunt Martha, with a look 
that would have led a stranger to suppose she 
held visitors in much the same estimation as 
tax-gatherers. 


fl84 THE RED ERIC. 

“ How awkward ! ” exclaimed Aunt Jane. 

“ Send ’em away, girl,” cried the captain. 
“We’re all engaged. Can’t see any one to-day.” 

In a moment the servant-girl returned. 

“ He says he must see you.” 

“ See who ? ” cried the captain. 

“ See you^ sir.” 

“ Must he ? Then he shan’t. Tell him that.” 

“ Please, sir, he says he wont go away.” 

“ Wont he ? ” 

As he said this the captain set his teeth, 
clenched his fists, and darted out of the room. 

“ Oh ! George ! Stop him ! do stop him. He’s 
so violent ! He’ll do something dreadful ! ” said 
Aunt Martha. 

“Will no one caU out murder?” groaned Aunt 
Jane, with a shudder. 

As no one, however, ventm*ed to check Cap- 
tain Dunning, he reached the door and confronted 
a rough big burly sailor, who stood outside with 
a free-and-easy expression of countenance, and 
his hands in his trowsers pockets. 

“ Why don’t you go away when you’re told, 
eh ? ” shouted the captain. 

“’Cause I wont,” answered the man, cooUy 

The captain stepped close up, but the sailor 
stood his ground and grinned. 

“ Now, my lad, if you don’t up anchor and 
make sail light away, I’U knock in your daylights.” 

“ No, you wont do nothin’ o’ the kind, old 
gen’lem’n; but you’ll double-reef your temper, 


A REMARKABLE STRANGER. 


385 


and listen to wot Fve got to say ; for its very 
parti ckler, and wont keep long without spilin’.” 

“ What have you got to say, then ? ” said the 
captain, becoming interested, but still feeling net- 
tled at the interruption. 

Can’t tell you here.” 

“Why not?” 

“ Never mind ; but put on your sky-scraper, 
and come down with me to the grog-shop wot 
I frequents, and I’ll tell ye.” 

I’ll do nothing of the sort ; be off,” cried the 
captain, preparing to slam the door. 

“ Oh ! it’s all the same to me, in coorse, but I 
rather think that if ye know’d that it’s ’bout the 
Termagant, and that ’ere whale wot — but it don’t 
matter. Good mornin’.” 

“ Stay,” cried the captain, as the last words 
fell on his ears. “ Veil.” 

“ Have you really any thing to say to me about 
that ship ? ” 

“ In coorse I has.” 

“ Wont you come in and say it here ? ” 

“ Not by no means. You must come down to 
the grog-shop with me.” 

“ WeU, I’ll go.” 

So saying the captain ran back to the parlor, 
said, in hurried tones, that he had to go out on 
matters of importance, but would be back to 
dine at five, and putting on his hat, left the cot- 
tage in company with the strange sailor. 

83 


386 


THE RED ERIC. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

Captain Dunning astonishes the Stranger. — Surprising News and 
Desperate Resolves. 

Still keeping his hands in his pockets and the 
free-and-easy expression on his countenance, the 
sailor swaggere4 through the streets of the town, 
with Captain Dunning at his side until he ar- 
rived at a very dirty little street, near the harbor, 
the chief characteristics of which were noise, com- 
pound smells, and little shops with sea-stores 
hung out in front. At the further end of this 
street the sailor paused before a small public-house, 

‘‘ Here we are,” said he ; “ this is the place 
w’ere I puts up w’en I’m ashore — w’ich ain’t 
often — that’s a fact. After you, sir.” 

The captain hesitated. 

“ You ain’t afraid, air you ? ” asked the sailor, 
in an incredulous tone. 

“ No I’m not, my man ; but I have an objec- 
tion to enter a public-house, unless I cannot help 
it. Have you had a glass this morning ? ” 

The sailor looked puzzled, as if he did not see 
very clearly what the question had to do with the 
captain’s difficulty. 

“ Well, for the matter o’ that, I’ve had three 
glasses this mornin’.” 


MYSTERIES. 


387 


“ Then suppose you have no objection to tr^ 
a glass of my favorite tipple, have you ? ” 

The man smiled, and wiping his mouth with 
the cuff of his jacket, as if he expected the captain 
was, then and there, about to hand him a glass of 
the tipple referred to, said : 

“ No objection, wotsomediver.” 

“ Then follow me; I’ll take you to the place 
where I put up sometimes when I’m ashore. It’s 
not far off.’? 

Five minutes sufficed to transport them from 
the dirty little street near the harbor to the back 
parlor of the identical coffee-house in which the 
captain was first introduced to the reader. Here, 
having whispered something to the waiter, he pro- 
ceeded to question his companion on the myste- 
rious business for which he had brought him there. 

“ Couldn’t we have the tipple first ? ” suggested 
the sailor. 

“ It will be here directly. Have you break- 
fasted ? ” 

“ ’Xceptin’ the three glasses I told ye of — no.” 

“ Well, now, what have you to tell me about the 
Termagant ? You have already said that you are 
one of her crew, and that you were in the boat 
that day when we had a row about the whale. 
What more can you tell me ? ” 

The sailor sat down on a chair, stretched out 
his legs quite straight, and very wide apart, and 
thrust his hands, if possible, deeper into his pock- 


388 


THE RED ERIC. 


ets than they ever were thrust before — so deep, 
in fact, as to suggest the idea that there were no 
pockets there at all — merely holes. Then he 
looked at Captain Dunning with a peculiarly sly 
expression of countenance and winked- 

“ Well, that’s not much. Any thing more ? ” in 
quired the captain. 

“ Ho, yes ; lots more. The Termagant’s in this 
yere port — at — this — yere — moment ! ” 

The latter part of this was said in a hoarse, em- 
phatic whisper, and the man raising up both legs 
to a horizontal position, let them fall so that his 
heels came with a crash upon the wooden floor. 

“ Is she ? ” cried the captain, with lively interest; 
“ and her captain ? ” 

‘‘ He’s — yere — too ! ” 

Captain Dunning took one or two hasty strides 
across the floor, as if he were pacing his own quar- 
ter-deck — then stopped suddenly and said : 

“ Can you get hold of any more of that boat’s 
crew ? ” 

“ I can do nothin’ more wotiver, nor say nothin’ 
more wotsomediver, till I’ve tasted that ’ere tipple 
o’ yourn.” 

The captain rang the bell, and the waiter en 
tered with ham and eggs, buttered toast, and hot 
coflee for two. 

The sailor opened his eyes to their utmost pos- 
sible width, and made an effort to thrust his hands 
still deeper into his unfathomable browsers pock- 


THE CAx>TAIN^S ‘‘ TIPPLE. ^ 


389 


ets ; then he sat bolt upright, and gathering hia 
legs as close under his chair as possible, clasped 
his knees with his hands, hugged himself, and 
grinned from ear to ear. After sitting a second 
or two in that position, he jumped up, and going 
forward to the table, took up the plate of ham 
and eggs, as if to make sure that it was a reality, 
and smelt it. 

“ Is this your favorite tipple ? ” he said, on being 
quite satisfied of the reality of what he saw. 

“ Coffee is my favorite drink,” replied the cap- 
tain, laughing. I never take any thing stronger.” 

“ Ho ! you’re a to-teetler ? ” 

“ I am. Now, my man, as you have not yet 
had breakfast, and as you interrupted me in the 
middle of mine, suppose we sit down and discuss 
the matter of the whale over this.” 

“ Well, this is the rummiest way of offerin’ to 
give a fellow a glass as I ever did come across 
since I was a tadpole, as sure as my name’s Dick 
Jones,” remarked the sailor, sitting down opposite 
the captain, and turning up the cuffs of his coat. 

Having filled his mouth to its utmost possible 
extent, the astonished seaman proceeded, at one 
and the same time, to masticate and to relate aU 
that he knew in regard to the Termagant. 

He said that not only was that vessel in port at 
that time, but that the same men were stiU aboard; 
that the captain — Dixon by name — was still in 
command, and that the whale which had been 
33 * 


390 


THE RED ERIC. 


seized from the crew of the Red Eric had been sold 
along with the rest of the cargo. He related, 
moreover, how that he and his comrades had 
beejx very ill-treated by Captain Dixon during 
the voyage, and that he ( Captain D.) was, in the 
opinion of himself and his shipmates, the greatest 
blackguard afloat, and had made them so misera- 
ble by his brutality and tyranny, that they all 
hoped they might never meet with his like again 
— not to mention the hopes and wishes of a very 
unfeeling nature which they one and aU expressed 
in regard to that captain’s future career. Besides 
aU this, he stated that he (Dick Jones) had recog- 
nized Captain Dunning when he landed that 
morning, and had followed him to the cottage 
with the yellow face and the green door ; after 
which he had taken a turn of half an hour or so 
up and down the street to think what he ought 
to do, and had at last resolved to tell all that he 
knew, and offer to stand witness against his cap- 
tain, which he was then and there prepared to do, 
at that time or at any future period, wherever he 
(Captain Dunning) liked, and whenever he 
pleased, and that there was an end of the whole 
matter, and that was a fact. 

Having unburdened his mind, and eaten all the 
ham, and eggs, and toast, and drunk all the coffee, 
and asked for more and got it, D'ck Jones pro- 
ceeded to make himself supreme! y nappy by fill- 
ing his pipe and lighting it. 


A DISCOVERY. 


391 


“ ni take him to law,” said Captain Dunning 
firmly, smiting the table with his fist. 

“ I know’d a feller,” said Jones, “ wot always 
said, w’en he heard a feller say that, ‘ You’ll come 
for to wish that ye hadn’t; ’ but 1 think ye’re right, 
cap’en ; for it’s a clear case, clear as daylight . 
an’ we’ll all swear to a’ most any thing as’ll go fui 
to prove it.” 

“ But are you sure your messmates are as will- 
ing as you are to witness against their captain ? ” 

“ Sure ? In coorse I is — sartin’ sure. Didn’t 
he lamp two on ’em with a rope’s-end once till they 
wos fit to bust, and all for nothin’ but skylarkin’ ? 
They’ll all go in the same boat with me, ’cept 
p’raps the cook, who is named Baldwin. He’s a 
cross-grained critter, an’ll stan’ by the cap’en 
through thick an’ thin, an’ so will the carpenter — 
Box they calls him — he’s dead agin’ us ; but that’s 
aU.” 

“ Then I’ll do it at once,” cried Captain Dun- 
ning, rising and putting on his hat firmly, as a 
man does when he has made a great resolve, 
which he more than half suspects will get him 
into a world of difficulties and trouble. 

“ I s’pose I may set here till ye come back ? ” 
inquired Dick Jones, who now wore a dim mys- 
terious aspect, in consequence of the cloud of 
smoke in which he had enveloped himself. 

“ You may sit there till they turn you out ; but 
come and take breakfast with me at the same 
hour to-morrow, will ye ? ” 


392 


THE RED ERIC. 


« Wont I?” 

“ Then good day.” 

So saying, the captain left the coffee-house, and 
hurried to his sisters’ cottage, where he rightly con- 
jectured he should find Glynn Proctor. Without 
telling his sisters the result of the interview with 
the “rude seaman,” he took Glynn’s arm, and 
sallied forth in search of Tim Rokens and Mr. 
Millons, both of whom they discovered enjoying 
their pipes, after a hearty breakfast, in a small, un- 
pretending, but excellent and comfortable “ sailors’ 
home,” in the dirty little street before referred to. 

The greater part of the crew of the late Red 
Eric (now “ sticks and stivers ”) were found in the 
same place, engaged in much the same occupation, 
and to these, in solemn conclave assembled. Cap- 
tain Dunning announced his intention of opening 
a law-suit against the captain of the Termagant for 
the unlawful appropriation of the whale harpooned 
by Glynn. The men highly approved of what 
they called a “ shore-going scrimmage,” and ad- 
vised the captain to go and have the captain and 
crew of the Termagant “ put in limbo right off.” 

Thus advised and encouraged. Captain Dunning 
went to a lawyer, who, after hearing the case, 
stated it as his opinion that it was a good one, and 
forthwith set about taking the needful preliminary 
steps to commencing the action. 

Thereafter captain Dunning walked rapidly 
home, wiping his hot brow as he went, and en- 


DESPERATE RESOLUTIONS. 


393 


tering the parlor of the cottage — the yellow-faced 
cottage — flung himself on the sofa with a reck- 
less air, and said, “ Fve done it ! ” 

“ Horror ! ” cried Aunt Martha. 

“ Misery ! ” gasped Aunt Jane, who happened 
o be fondling Ailie at the time of her brother’s 
entrance. 

“ le he dead ? ” 

“ Quite dead ? ” added Martha. 

‘‘ Is who dead ? ’’ inquired the captain, in sur- 
prise. 

“ The man — the rude sailor ! ” 

“ Dead ! No.” 

You said just now that you had done it.” 

“ So I have. Fve done the deed. Fve gone 
to law.” 

Had the captain said that he had gone to “ sticks 
and stivers,” his sisters could not have been more 
startled and horrified. They dreaded the law, and 
hated it with a great and intense hatred, and not 
without reason ; for their father had been ruined 
in a law-suit, and his father had broken the law, 
in some political manner they could never clearly 
understand, and had been condemned by the law 
to perpetual banishment. 

“ Will it do you much harm, dear papa ? ” in- 
quired Ailie, in great concern. 

“ Harm ? Of course not. I hope it’ll do me, 
and you too, a great deal of good.” 

“ Fm so glad to hear that ; for I’ve heard peo 


394 


THE RED ERIC. 


pie say that when you once go into it you never 
get out of it again.” 

“ So have I,” said Aunt Martha, with a deep 
sigh. 

“ And so have I,” added Aunt Jane, with a 
ileeper sigh ; and I believe it’s true.” 

“ It’s false ! ” cried the captain, laughing, “ and 
you are all silly geese ; the law is ” • 

“ A bright and glorious institution ! A desirable 
investment for the talents of able men ! A machine 
for justice usually — injustice occasionally — and 
like aU other good things, often misused, abused, 
and spoken against ! ” said Glynn Proctor, at that 
moment entering the room, and throwing his hat 
on one chair and himself on another. “ I’ve had 
enough of the sea, captain, and have come to re- 
sign my situation and beg for dinner.” 

“ You shall have it immediately, dear Glynn,” 
said Martha, whose heart warmed at the sight of 
one who had been so kind to her little niece. 

“ Nay, I’m in no hurry,” said Glynn, quickly ; 
“ I did but jest, dear madam, as Shakspeare has 
it. Perhaps it was Milton who said it ; one can’t 
be sure : but whenever a truly grand remark 
escapes you, you’re safe to clap it down to Shak- 
speare.” 

At this point the servant-girl announced dinner. 
At the same instant a heavy foot was heard in 
the passage, and Tim Rokens announced himself, 
saying that he had jus ' seen the captain’s law- 


ROKENS IS MODEST. 


395 


yer, and had been sent to say that he wished to 
see Captain Dunning in the course of the evening. 

“ Then let him go on wishing till Pm ready to 
go to him. Meanwhile do you come and dine 
with us, Rokens, my lad.” 

Rokens looked awkward, and shuffled a little 
with his feet, and shook his head. 

“ Why, what’s the matter, man ? ” 

Rokens looked as if he wished to speak, but 
hesitated. 

“ If ye please, cap’en. I’d raither not, axin’ the 
ladies’ parding. I’d like a word with you in the 
passage.” 

“ By all means,” replied the captain, going out 
of the room with the sailor. “ Now, what’s wrong ? ” 

“ My flippers, cap’en,” said 'Rokens, thrusting 
out his hard, thick, enormous hands, which were 
stained all over with sundry streaks of tar, and 
were very red as well as extremely clumsy to 
look at — “ I’ve bin an’ washed ’em with hot 
water and rubbed ’em with grease till I a’most 
took the skin off, but they woiit come clean, and 
I’m not fit to sit down with ladies.” 

To this speech the captain replied by seizing 
Tim Rokens by the collar and iraggiiig him 
fairly into the parlor. 

“ Here’s a man,” cried the captain, enthusiasm 
tically, presenting him to Martha, who’s sailed 
with me for nigh thirty years, and is the best har- 
pooner I ever had, and has stuck to me through 


396 


THE RED ERIC. 


thick and thin, in fair weather and foul, in heat 
and cold, and was kinder to Ailie during the last 
voyage than all the other men put together, ex- 
ceptin’ Glynn, and who tells me his hands are 
covered with tar, and that he can’t wash ’em clean 
nohow, and isn’t fit to dine with ladies'; so you 
will oblige me, Martha, by ordering him to leave 
the house.” 

“ I will, brother, with pleasure. I order you, 
Mr. Rokens, to leave this house at your peril! 
And I invite you to partake of our dinner, which 
is now on the table in the next room.” 

Saying this. Aunt Martha grasped one of 
the great tar-stained ‘‘ flippers ” in both of her 
own delicate hands, and shook it with a degree 
of vigor that Tim Rokens afterwards said he 
could not have believed possible had he not felt it. 

Seeing this. Aunt Jane turned aside and blew 
her nose violently. Tim Rokens attempted to 
make a bow, failed, and grinned. The captain 
cried — “ Now, then, heave ahead ! ” Glynn, in 
the exuberance of his spirits, uttered a miniature 
cheer. Ailie gave vent to a laugh, that sounded 
as sweet as a good song; and the whole party 
adjourned to the dining-room, where the servant- 
girl was found in the sulks because dinner was 
getting rapidly cold, and the cat was found 

“ Prowling round the festal board 
On thievish deeds intent.” * 


• See Milton’s “ Paradise Regained,” latest editiotk 


THE LAW-SUIT. 


397 


CHAPTER XXVII 


fhe Law-suit. — The Battle, and the Victory. 


T) E great case of Dunning versus Dixon came 
on a' last. 

O t that day Captain Dunning was in a fever; 
G3y) n Proctor was in a fever ; Tim Rokens was 
in a fever ; the Misses Dunning were in two sep- 
arai 3 fevers — everybody, in fact, on the Dunning 
side of the case was in a fever of nervous anxiety 
and mental confusion. As witnesses in the case, 
they had been precognosced to such an extent 
by the lawyers that their intellects were almost 
overturned. On being told that he was to be 
precognosced, Tim Rokens said stoutly — ‘‘ He’d 
Like to see the man as ’ud do it ; ” under the im- 
pression that that was the legal term for being 
kicked, or otherwise maltreated ; and on being 
informed that the word signified merely an ex- 
amination as to the extent of his knowledge of 
the facts of the case, he said, quietly, “ Fire 
away ! ” Before they had done firing away, the 
gallant harpooner was so confused that he began 
to regard the whole case as already hopeless. 

The other men were much in the same condi- 
tion *, but in a private meeting held among them- 
34 


398 


THE RED ERIC. 


selves the day before the trial, Rokens made the 
following speech, which comforted them not a 
little: 

“ Messmates and shipmates,” said Tim, “ Fll 
tell ye wot it is. I’m no lawyer — that’s a fact 
— but I’m a man ; an’ wot’s a man ? — it ain’t 
a bundle o’ flesh an’ bones on two legs, with a 
turnip a top o’t, is it ? ” 

“ Be no manes,” murmured Briant, with an 
approving nod. 

“ Cer’nly not,” remarked Dick Barnes. “ I 
second that motion.” 

“ Good,” continued Rokens. “ Then, bein’ a 
man, I’ve got brains enough to see that, if we 
don’t want to contredick one another, we must 
stick to the truth.” 

“ You don’t suppose I’d go fur to tell lies, do 
you ? ” said Tarquin, quickly. 

“ In course not. But what I mean to say is 
that we must stick to what we knows to be the 
truth, and not be goin’ for to guess at it, or thmk 
that we knows it, and then swear to it as if we 
\vas certain sure.” 

‘‘ Here ! here ! ” from the assembled company. 

“ In fact,” observed Glynn, “ let what we say be 
absolutely true, and say just as little as we can. 
That’s how to manage a good case.” 

“ An’ be all manes,” added Briant, “ don’t let 
any of ye try for to improve matters be volun- 
teerin’ yer opinion. Volunteerin’ opinions is stuff. 


THE LAW-SUIT. 


399 


Volunteerin’ is altogether a bad look-out. I 
know’d a feller, I did — a strappin’ young feller 
he was, too, more betoken — as volunteered him- 
self to death, he did. To be sure, his wos a case 
o’ volunteerin’ into the Louth Militia, and he wos 
shot, he was, in a pop’lar riot, as the noosepapers 
said — a scrimmage I calls it — so don’t let any 
o’ us be goin’ for to volunteer opinions w’en no- 
body axes ’em — no, nor wants ’em.” 

Briant looked so pointedly at Gurney while de- 
livering this advice, that that obese individual felt 
constrained to look indignant and inquire whether 
“ them ere imperent remarks wos meant for him.” 
To which Briant replied that “ they wos meant for 
him, as well as for ivery man then present.” 
Whereupon Gurney started up and shook his fist 
across the table at Briant, and Briant made a face 
at Gurney, at which the assembled company of 
mariners laughed, and immediately thereafter the 
meeting was broken up. 

Next day the trial came on, and as the case 
was expected to be more than usually interesting, 
the house was filled to overflowing long before 
the hour. 

The trial lasted all that day, and all the next, 
and a great part of the third, but we do not pur- 
pose going into it in detail. The way in which 
Mr. Rasp (Captain Dunning’s counsel) and Mr. 
Tooth (Captain Dixon’s counsel) badgered, brow- 
beat, and utterly bamboozled the witnesses on 


400 


THE RED ERIC. 


both sides, and totally puzzled the jury, can only 
be understood by those who have frequented 
courts of law, but could not be fully or adequately 
described in less than six hundred pages. 

In the course of the trial the resolutions come 
to by the crew of the Red Eric, that they would 
teU nothing but the truth, and carefully refrain 
from touching on what they were not quite sure 
of, proved to be of the greatest advantage to the 
pursuer’s case. We feel constrained here to turn 
aside for one moment, to advise the general adop- 
tion of that course of conduct in aU the serious 
affairs of Hfe. 

The evidence of Tim Rokens was clear and to 
the point. The whale had been first struck by 
Glynn with a harpoon, to which a drog was at- 
tached : it had been followed up by the crew of 
the Red Eric, and also by the crew of the Terma- 
gant. The boats of the latter overtook the fish 
first, fixed a harpoon in it, and lanced it mortally. 
The drog and harpoon of the Red Eric were still 
attached to the whale when this was done, so 
that, according to the laws of the fishery, the crew 
of the Termagant had no right to touch the whale 
— it was a “ fast ” fish. If the drog had become 
detached, the fish would have been free, and both 
crews would! have been entitled to chase and cap- 
ture it if they were able. Angry words and 
threats had passed between the crews of the op- 
posing boats, but the whale put a stop to that by 


THE LAW-SUIT. 


401 


smashing the boat of the Red Eric with its tail, 
whereupon the boat of the Termagant made off 
with the fish (which died almost immediately 
after), and left the crew of the boat belonging to 
the Red Eric struggling in the water. 

Such was the substance of the evidence of the 
harpooner, and neither cross-examination nor re* 
cross-examination by Mr. Tooth, the counsel for 
the defendant, could induce Tim Rokens to mod- 
ify, alter, omit, or contradict one iota of what he 
had said. 

It must not be supposed, however, that all of 
the men gave their evidence so clearly or so weU 
The captain did, though he was somewhat nervous, 
and the doctor did, and Glynn did. But that of 
Nikel Sling was unsatisfactory, in consequence of 
his being unable to repress his natural tendency to 
exaggeration. Tarquin also did harm ; for, in his 
spite against the crew of the Termagant, he made 
statements which were not true, and his credit as 
a witness was therefore totally destroyed. 

Last of all came Jim Scroggles, who, after being 
solemnly sworn, deposed that he was between 
thirty-five and thirty-six years of age, on hearing 
which, Gurney said “ Oh ! ” with peculiar empha- 
sis, and the people laughed, and the judge cried 
“ silence,” and the examination went on. After 
some time Mr. Tooth rose to cross-question Jim 
Scroggles, who happened to be a nervous man 

34 * 


402 


THE RED ERIC. 


in public, and was gradually getting confused 
and angry. 

“ Now, my man, please to be particular in your 
replies,’’ said Mr. Tooth, pushing up his specta- 
cles on his forehead, thrusting his hands into his 
trowsers pockets, and staring very hard at Jim. 

You said that you pulled the second oar from the 
bow on the day in which the whale was killed.” 

« Yes.” 

“ Are you quite sure of that ? Was it not the 
third oar, now ? ” 

“ Veil, p’raps ” 

“ Yes or no,” interrupted Mr. Tooth. 

“ It’s so long since ” 

“ Yes or no,” repeated Mr. Tooth. 

“ Yes,” roared Scroggles, forgetting at the mo- 
ment, in his confusion and indignation at not 
being allowed to speak, in what manner the ques- 
tion had been put. 

“ Yes,’’ echoed Mr. Tooth, addressing the judge, 
but looking at the jury. “ You wiU observe, gentle- 
men. Would your lordship be so good as to note 
that? This witness, on that very particular oc- 
casion, when every point in the circumstances must 
naturally have been impressed deeply on the mem- 
ories of aU present, appears to have been so con- 
fused as not to know which oar of the boat he 
puUed. So, my man (turning to the witness) it 
appears evident that either you are now misstating 
the fads of the case or were then incapable of 
ludgkig of them.” 


THE LAW-SUIT. 


403 


Jim Scroggles felt inclined to leap out of the 
witness-box, and knock the teeth of Mr. Tooth 
down his throat ! But he repressed the inclina- 
tion, and that gentleman went on to say, — 

“ When the boat of the Bed Eric came up to 
the whale was the drog still attached to it ? ’’ 

“ In coorse it was. Didn’t ye hear me say that 
three or ” 

“ Be so good as to answer my questions simply, 
and do not make unnecessary remarks, sir. Was 
the drog attached when the boat came up ? Yes 
or no.” 

“ Yes.” 

“ How do you know ? ” 

“ ’Cause I seed it.” 

“ You are quite sure that you saw it ? ” 

“ In coorse ! — leastwise, Tim Rokens seed it, 
and all the men in the boat seed it, and said so to 
me afterwards — w’ich is the same thing, though 
I can’t ’xactly say I seed it myself, ’cause I was 
looking hard at the men in the enemy’s boat, and 
considerin’ which on ’em I should give a dab in the 
nose to first w’en we come alongside of ’em.” 

“ Oh ! then you did not see the drog attached 
to the whale ? ” said Mr. Tooth, with a glance at 
the jury ; ‘‘ and you were so taken up with the 
anticipated fight, I suppose, that you scarcely 
gave your attention to the whale at all ! Were 
the other men in your boat in a similarly unob- 
servant condition ? ” 

^ Eh ? ” exclaimed 8croggles. 


404 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Were the other men as eager for the fight as 
you were ? ’’ 

“ I s’pose -they wos ; you’d better ax ’em. 1 
dun know.” 

“ No, I don’t suppose you do, considering the 
state of mind you appear to have been in at the 
time. Do you know which part of the whale 
struck your boat ? Was it the head ? ” 

“ No ; it was the tail.” 

“ Are you quite sure of that ? ” 

“ Ho, yes, quite sartin, for I’ve got a knot on my 
head this day where the tip of its flukes came 
down on me.” 

“ You’re quite sure of that ? Might it not have 
been the part of the fish near the tail, now, that 
struck you, or the fin just under the tail ?” 

“ No ; I’m quite sartin sure it warn’t ihaV^ 

“ How are you so sure it wasn’t that ? ” 

“ Because whales hain’t got no fins just under 
their tails I ” replied Scroggles, with a broad grin. 

There was another loud laugh at this, and Mr. 
Tooth looked a little put out, and the judge 
cried silence again, and threatened to clear the 
court. 

After a few more questions Jim Scroggles was 
permitted to retire, which he did oppressed with a 
‘beling that his evidence had done the case little 
good, if not some harm, yet rather elated than 
otherwise at the success of his last hit. 

That evening Captain Dunning . supped with 


THE LAW-SUIT. 


405 


Ailie and his sisters in low spirits. Glynn and the 
•doctor and Tim Rokens and the two mates, Mil- 
Ions and Markham, supped with him, also in low 
spirits ; and King Bumble acted the part of waiter, 
for that sable monarch had expressed an earnest 
desire to become Captain Dunning’s servant, and 
the captain had agreed to “ take him on,” at least 
for a time. King Bumble was also in low spirits ; 
and, as a natural consequence, so were Aunts 
Martha and Jane and little Ailie. It seemed ut- 
terly incomprehensible to the males of the party, 
how so good a case as this should come to wear 
such an unpromising aspect. 

“ The fact is,” said the captain, at the conclu- 
sion of a prolonged discussion, “ I don’t believe 
we’ll gain it.” 

“ Neither do I,” said the doctor, helping himself 
to a large quantity of salad, as if that were the 
only comfort now left to him, and he meant to 
make the most of it before giving way to total 
despair. 

“ I knew it,” observed Aunt Martha, firmly. “ I 
always said the law was a wicked institution.” 

“ It’s a great shame I ” said Aunt Jane, indig- 
nantly ; ‘‘ but what could we expect ? It treats 
every one ill.” 

“ Won’t it treat Captain Dixon well, if he wins, 
aunt ? ” inquired Ailie. ' 

“ Dear child, what can you possibly know about 
law ? ” said Aunt Martha. 


406 


THE RED ERIC. 


“ Would you like a little more tart?’’ asked 
Aunt Jane. 

“ Bravo ! Ailie,” cried Glynn, “ that’s a fair 
question. I back it up.” 

“ How much do you claim for damages, 
George ? ” inquned Aunt Martha, changing the 
subject. 

(Question!) whispered Glynn. 

“ Two thousand pounds,” answered the captain. 

“ What ! exclaimed the aunts, in a simulta- 
neous burst of amazement. “ All for one fish ? ” 

“ Ay, it was a big one, you see, and Dick 
Jones, one of the men of the Termagant, told me 
it was sold for that. It’s a profitable fishing, when 
one doesn’t lose one’s ship. What do you say to 
go with me and Ailie on our next trip, sisters. 
You might use up aU your silk and worsted thread 
and crooked pins.” 

“ What nonsense you talk, George ; but I sup- 
pose you really do use pretty large hooks and 
lines when you fish for whales ? ” 

Aunt Martha addressed the latter part of her 
remark to Tim Rokens, who seemed immensely 
tickled by the captain’s pleasantly. 

“ Hooks and lines ! ma’am,” cried Rokens, 
regarding his hostess with a look of puzzled sur- 
prise. 

“To be sure we do,” interrupted Glynn; “we 
use anchors bated with live crocodiles — some- 
times elephants, when we can’t get crocodiles. 
But hippopotamuses do best.” 


THE LAW-SUIT. 


407 


Oh ! Glynn ! ” cried Ailie, laughing, “ how 
can you ? ” 

“ It all depends on the drog,” remarked the 
doctor. “ Fm surprised to find how few of the 
men can state with absolute certainty that thev 
saw the drog attached to the whale when the 
boat came up to it. It all hinges upon that. 

“ Yes,” observed Mr. Millons, “ the ’ole case 
’inges on that, because that proves it was a fast 
fish.” 

“ Dear me, Mr. Millons,” said Aunt Martha, 
smiling, ‘‘ I have heard of fast young men, but I 
never heard of a fast fish before.” 

“ Didn’t you, ma’am ? ” exclaimed the first 
mate, looking up in surprise, for that matter-of- 
fact seaman seldom recognized a joke at first 
sight. 

Aunt Martha, who very rarely ventured on the 
perpetration of a joke, blushed, and turning some- 
what hastily to Mr. Markham, asked if he would 
take “ another cup of tea.” Seeing that there was 
no tea on the table, she substituted “ another slice 
of ham,” and laughed. Thereupon the whole com- 
pany laughed, and from that moment their spirits 
began to rise. They began to discuss the more fa- 
vorable points of the evidence led that day, and 
when they retired at a late hour to rest, their 
hopes had again become more sanguine. 

Next morning the examination of the witnesses 
for the defendant came on. There were more of 


408 


THE RED ERIC. 


them than Dick Jones had expected ; for the crew 
of the Termagant happened to be partly made up 
of very bad men, who were easily bribed by their 
captain to give their evidence in his favor. But 
it soon became evident that they had not previ- 
ously determined, as Captain Dunning’s men had 
done, to stick to the simple truth. They not only 
contradicted each other, but each contradicted 
himself more than once ; and it amazed them all, 
more than they could tell, to find how easily Mr. 
Rasp turned their thoughts outside in, and caused 
them to prove conclusively that they were telling 
falsehoods. 

After the case had been summed up by the 
judge, the juiy retired to consult, but they only 
remained five minutes away, and then came back 
with a verdict in favor of the pursuers. 

“ Who’s the ‘ pursooers ? ’ ” inquired Gurney, 
when this was announced to him by Nikel Sling. 
“ Ain’t we all pursooers ? Wosn’t we all pursoo- 
ing the whale together ? ” 

“ Oh, you grampus ! ” cried Nikel, laughing. 
“ Don't ye know that we is the purshooers, ’cause 
why ? We’re purshooin’ the cap’en and crew of 
the Termagant at law, and means to purshoo ’em 
too, I guess, till they stumps up for that air whale. 
And they is the defendants, ’cause they’re s’posed 
to defend themselves to the last gasp ; but it ain’t 
9’ no manner o’ use.” 

Nikel Sling was right Captain Dixon wa$ 


THE LAW-SUIT. 


409 


pursued until he paid back the valae of his ill- 
gotten whale, and was forcibly reminded by this 
episode in his career, “ that honesty is the best 
policy ” after aU. Thus Captain Dunning found 
himself suddenly put in possession of a sum of 
two thousand pounds. 


# 


410 


THE BED ERIC. 


CHAPTER XXVIll 

The Conclusion. 

The trouble, and worry, and annoyance that 
that sum of <£2,000 gave to Captain 'Dunning is 
past all belief. That worthy man, knowing that 
Glynn Proctor had scarcely a penny in the world, 
not even his“ kit” (as sailors name their sea-chests), 
which had been lost in the wreck of the Red Eric, 
and that the boy was about to be cast upon the 
world again an almost friendless wanderer — 
knowing all this, we say. Captain Dunning in- 
sisted that as Glynn had been the first to strike 
the whale, and as no one else had had any thing 
to do with its capture, he (Glynn) was justly en- 
titled to the money. 

Glynn firmly declined to admit the justice of 
this view of the case ; he had been paid his 
wages; that was all he had any right to claim; 
so he positively refused to take the money. But 
the captain was more than his match. He in- 
sisted so powerfully, and argued so logically, that 
Glynn at last consented, on condition that X500 
of it should be distributed among his shipmates. 
This compromise was agreed to, and thus Glynn 
came into possession of what appeared in his eyes 
a fortune of £1,500. 


DELIGHTFUL PLANS. 


411 


“ Now, wiiat am I to do with it ? that is the 
question.” 

Glynn propounded this knotty question one 
evening, about three weeks after the trial, to his 
friends of the yellow cottage with the green- 
painted door. 

“ Put it in the bank,” suggested Aunt Martha. 

“ Yes, and live on the interest,” added Aunt 
Jane. 

“ Or invest in the whale fishery,” said Captain 
Dunning, emitting a voluminous cloud of tobacco 
smoke, as if to suggest the idea that the invest- 
ment would probably end in something similar to 
that. (The captain was a peculiarly favored 
Individual ; he was privileged to smoke in the 
Misses Dunnings’ parlor.) 

“ Oh ! I’ll teU you what to do, Glynn,” cried 
Ailie, clapping her hands ; “ it would be so nice. 
Buy a cottage with it — a nice, pretty, white- 
painted cottage, beside a wood, with a little river 
m front of it, and a small lake with a boat on it 
not far off, and a far, far view from the windows 
of fields, and villages, and churches, and cattle, 
and sheep, and ” 

“ Hurrah ! Ailie, go it, my lass ! ” interrupted 
Glynn ; “ and horses, and ponies, and cs^rts, and 
cats, aiid blackbirds, and cocks and hens, and 
ploughmen, and milkmaids, and beggars, all in the 
foreground ; and coaches, and railroads, aitd steam- 
boats, and palaces, and canals, in the middle dis- 


412 


THE RED ERIC. 


tance ; ith a glorious background of the mighty 
sea glittering forever under the blazing beams of 
a perpetually setting sun, mingled with the pale 
rays of an eternally rising moon, and laden with 
small craft, and whale-ships, and seaweed, and 
fish, and bumboats, and men-of-war ! ” 

“ Oh, how nice ! ’’ cried Ailie, screaming with 
delight. 

“ Go ahead, lad, never give in ! ” said the 
captain, whose pipe during this glowing descrip- 
tion had been keeping up what seemed like a 
miniature sea-fight. “ YouVe forgot the main 
point.” 

“ What’s that ? ” inquired Glynn. 

“ Why, a palace for Jacko close beside it, with 
a portrait of Jacko over the drawing-room fire- 
place, and a marble bust of Jacko in the four cor- 
ners of every room.” 

“ So I did ; I forgot that,” replied Glynn. 

“Dear Jacko!” said Ailie, laughing heartily, 
and holding out her hand. 

The monkey which had become domesticated 
in the house, leaped nimbly upon her knee, and 
looked up in her face. 

“ Oh ! Ailie dear, do put it down,” cried Aunt 
Jane, shuddering. 

“ How can you ? ” said Aunt Martha ; “ dirty 
beast ! ” 

Of course Aunt Martha applied the latter part 
of he- remark to the monkey, not to the child. 


DELIGHTFUL PLANS. 


413 


“ ril never be able to bear it,” remarked Aunt 
Jane. 

“ And it will never come to agree with the cat,” 
observed Aunt Martha. 

Ailie patted her favorite on the cheek and told 
it to go away, adding, that it was a dear pet — 
whereupon that small monkey retired modestly to 
' a corner near the sideboard. It chanced to be the 
corner nearest to the sugar-basin which had been 
left out by accident ; but Jacko didn’t know that of 
course — at least, if he did, he did not say so. It is 
probable, however, that he found it out in course of 
time.; for an hour or two afterwards the distinct 
marks of ten very minute fingers were visible 
therein, a discovery which Aunt Martha made 
with a scream, and Aunt Jane announced with a 
shriek — which caused Jacko to retire precipi- 
tately. 

“ But reaUy,” said Glynn, “jesting apart, I must 
take to something on shore, for although I like the 
sea very well, I find that I like the land better.” 

“ WeU, since you wish to be in earnest about it,” 
said Captain Dunning, “ I’ll tell you what has been 
passing in my mind of late. I’m getting to be an 
oldish young man now, you see, and am rather tned 
of the sea myseff, so I also think of giving it up. 
I have now laid by about five thousand pounds, 
and with this I think of purchasing a farm. I 
learnt something of farming before I took to the 
sea, so that I’m not quite so green on such matters as 


414 


THE RED ERIC. 


you might suppose, though 1 confess Pm rathei 
rusty and behind the age ; but that wont much 
matter in a fine country like this, and I can get a 
good steward to take command and steer the ship 
until I have brushed up a bit in shore-goin’ navi- 
gation. There is a farm which is just the very 
thing for me not more than twenty miles from this 
town, with a cottage on it and a view somewhat * 
like the one you and Ailie described a few min- 
utes ago, though not quite so grand. But there’s 
one great and insuperable objection to my taking 
it.” 

“ What is that? ” inquired Aunt Martha, who 
with her sister, expressed in their looks unbounded 
surprise at the words of their brother, whom they 
regarded as so thoroughly and indissolubly con- 
nected with the sea that they would probably have 
been less surprised had he announced it to be his 
•'ntention to become a fish and thenceforward 
Iwell in a coral-cave. 

“ I have not enough of money wherewith to 
duy and stock it.” 

“ What a pity ! ” said Ailie, whose hopes had 
been rising with extraordinary rapidity, and wen 
thus quenched at once. 

Glynn leaped up and smote his thigh with his 
right hand, and exclaimed in a triumphant man 
ner — “ That’s the very ticket ! ” 

“ What’s the very ticket ? ” inquired the captain. 1 

“ Pll lend you money,” said Glynn. 


THE CAPTAIN BECOMES A FARMEK. 415 


“ Ay, boy, that’s just the point I was cornin’ to, 
A thousand pounds will do. Now, if you lend me 
that sum. I’m willin’ to take you into partnership, 
and we’ll buy the place and farm it together. I 
think we’ll pull well in the same boat, for I think 
you like me well enough, and I’m sure I like you, 
and I know Ailie don’t object to either of us ; ana 
after I’m gone, Glynn, you can work the farm for 
Ailie and give her her share. What say you ? ” 

“ Done,” exclaimed Glynn, springing up and 
seizing the captain’s hand. “ I’ll be your son and 
you’ll be my father, and Ailie will be my sister — 
and wont we be jolly, just ? ” 

Ailie laughed, and so did the two aunts, but the 
captain made no reply. He merely smoked with 
a violence that was quite appalling, and nodding 
his head, winked at Glynn, as if to say — “ That’s 
it, exactly ! ” 

The compact thus half jestingly entered into was 
afterwards thoroughly ratified and carried into 
effect. The cottage was named the Red Eric, and 
the property was named the Whale Brae, after an 
ancestral estate which, it was supposed, had, at 
some remote period, belonged to the Dunning fam- 
ily in Scotland. The title was not inappropriate, 
for it occupied the side of a rising ground, which, 
as a feature in the landscape, looked very like a 
whale, ‘‘ only,” as Glynn said, “ not quite so big,” 
which was an outrageous falsehood, for it was a 
great deal bigge" ! A small wooden palace was 


416 


THE KED ERIC. 


built for Jacko, and many a portrait was taken of 
him by Glynn, in charcoal, on many an outhouse 
waU, to the immense delight of Aihe. As to 
having busts of him placed in the corners of 
every room, Glynn remarked that that was quite 
unnecessary, for Jacko almost “ bu’st ” himself in 
every possible way, at every conceivable time, in 
every imaginable place, whenever he could con- 
veniently collect enough of food to do so — which 
was not often, for Jacko, though small, was of an 
elastic as well as an amiable disposition. 

Tim Rokens stuck to his old commander to the 
last. He said he had sailed with him the better 
part of his life, in the same ships, had weathered 
the same storms, and chased the same fish, and 
now that the captain had made up his mind to lay 
up in port, he meant to cast anchor beside him. 
So the bold harpooner became a species of over- 
seer and jack-of-all-trades on the property. Phil 
Briant set up as a carpenter in the village close by, 
took to himself a wife (his first wife having died), 
and became Tim Rokens’ boon companion and 
bosom friend. As for the rest of the crew of the 
Red Eric, they went their several ways, got into 
separate ships, and were never again reassembled 
together ; but nearly aU of them came, at separate 
times, in the course of years, to visit their old 
captain and shipmates in the Red Eric at Whale 
Brae. 

In course of time Ailie grew up into such a 


AILIE AND GLYNN. 


417 


sweet, pretty, modest, loveable woman, that the 
very sight of her did one’s heart good. Love 
was the ruling power in Ailie’s heart — love to her 
God and Saviour and to all His creatures. She 
was not perfect. Who is ? She had faults, plenty 
of them. Who has not? But her loving nature 
covered up every thing with a golden veil so beau- 
tiful, that no one saw her faults, or, if they did, 
would not believe them to be faults at all. 

Glynn, also, grew up and became a man. Ob- 
serve, reader, we don’t mean to say that he became 
a thing with long legs, and broad shoulders, and 
whiskers. Glynn became a real man ; an out-and? 
out man ; a being who realized the fact that he 
had been made and born into the world for the 
purpose of doing that world good, and leaving it 
better than he found it. He did not think that to 
strut, and smoke cigars, and talk loud or big, and 
commence most of his sentences with, “ Aw ! ’pon 
my soul ! ” was the summit of true greatness. Nei- 
ther did he, flying in disgust to the opposite ex- 
treme, speak like a misanthrope, and look like a 
bear, or dress like a savage. He came to know the 
truth of the proverb, that “ there is a time for all 
things,” and following up the idea suggested by 
those words, he came to perceive that there is a 
place for all things — that place being the human 
heart, when in a true and healthy condition in all 
its parts, out of which, in their proper time, some 
of those “ all things ” ought to be ever ready to flow 


418 


THE .lED ERIC. 


Hence Glynn could weep with the sorrov/ful and 
laugh with the gay. He could wear a red or blue 
flannel shirt, and pull an oar (ay, the best oar), at 
a rowing-match, or he could read the Bible and 
pray with a bed-ridden old woman. Had Glynn 
Proctor been a naval commander, he might have 
sunk, destroyed, or captured fleets. Had he been 
a soldier, he might have stormed and taken cities ; 
being neither, he was a greater man than either, 
for he could ‘^rule his own spirit^ If you are 
tempted, dear reader, to think that an easy matter, 
just try it. Make the effort. The first time you 
chance to be in a towering rage (which I trust, 
however, may never be), try to keep your tongue 
silent, and, most difficult of all, try at that moment 
to pray, and see whether your opinion as to your 
power over your own spirit be not changed. 

Such were Glynn and Ailie. “ So they married, 
of course,” you remark. Well, reader, and why 
not? Nothingcould be more natural. Glynn telt, 
and said, too, that nothing was nearer his heart. 
And Ailie admitted — after being told by Glynn 
that she must be his wife, for he wanted to have 
her, and was determined to have her whether she 
would or not — that her heart was in similar prox- 
imity to the idea of marriage. Captain Dunning 
did not object — it would have been odd if he 
had objected to the fulfilment of his chief earthly 
desire. Tim* Rokens did not groan when he heard 
of the proposal — by no means ; on the contrary, 


GLYNN AND AILIE’S MARRIAGE. 


419 


he roared, and laughed, and shouted with delight, 
and went straight off to tell Phil Briant, who 
roared a duet with him, and they both agreed that 
it “ wos the most gloriously nat’ral thing they ever 
did know since they wos launched upon the sea of 
time ! ” 

So Glynn Proctor and Ailie Dunning were 
married, and lived long, and happily, and usefuUy 
at Whale Brae. Captain Dunning lived with 
them until he was so old, that Ailie’s eldest 
daughter (also named Ailie) had to lead him from 
his bed-room each morning to breakfast, and light 
his pipe for him when he had finished. And 
Ailie the second performed her duties well, and 
made the old man happy — happier than he could 
find words to express — for Ailie the second was 
like her mother in all things, and greater praise 
than that could not possibly be awarded to her. 

The affairs of the cottage with the yellow face 
and the green door were kept in good order for 
many years by one of Ailie the second’s little 
sisters — Martha by name ; and there was much 
traffic and intercourse between that ancient build- 
ing and the Red Eric, as long as the two aunts 
lived, which was a very long time indeed. Its 
green door was, during that time almost battered 
off its hinges by successive juvenile members of 
the Proctor family. And truly deep and heart- 
felt was the mourning at Whale Brae, when the 
amiable sisters were taken away at last. 


420 


THE RED ERIC. 


As for Tim Rokens — that ancient mariner be* 
came the idol of the young Proctors, as they suc- 
cessively came to be old enough to know his worth. 
The number of ships and boats he made for the 
boys among them was absolutely fabulous. 
Equal, perhaps, to about a twentieth part of the 
number of pipes of tobacco he smoked during his 
residence there, and about double the number of 
stories told to them by Phil Briant during the 
same period. 

King Bumble lived with the family until his 
woolly head became as white as his face was 
black ; and Jacko — poor little Jacko — lived so 
long, that he became big, but he did not become 
less amiable, or less addicted to thieving. He turned 
gray at last, and became as blind as a bat, and 
finally crawled about the house, enfeebled by old 
age, and wrapped in a flannel dressing-gown. 

Sorrows and joys are the lot of all ; they chase 
each other across the sky of human life like cloud 
and sunshine on an April day. Captain Dunning 
and his descendants were not exempt from the 
pains, and toils, and griefs of life, but they met 
them in the right spirit, and diffused so sweet an 
influence around their dwelling that the neighbors 
used to say — and say truly — of the family at 
the Red Eric, that they were always good-hu- 
mored and happy — as happy as the day was long 


THE END. 


ENOCH mOEGAN’S SONS' 



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158. David Copperfield, Dickens, Pt 1.20 

David Copperfield, Part II 20 

160. Rienzi, by Lord Lytton, Part I . . 15 
Rianzi, by Lord Lytton. PartII.15 

161. Froinise of Marriage, Gaboriau.. 10 

162. Faith and Un faith, by The 

Duchess 20 


1 163. 

I 164. 

I 165. 
! 16C. 

167. 

168. 
169. 

no. 

1171. 

172. 

173. 

174. 

175 

176 

177. 

178. 

179. 

180. 
181. 
182. 
'183. 

184. 

185. 


186. 

187. 

188. 

189. 

190. 

191. 

192. 

193. 

194. 

195. 

196. 

197. 

198. 

199. 


200 . 

201 . 


202 . 

203. 

204. 

205. 

206. 

207. 

208. 
209. 


The Happy Man, by Lover.., 10 
Barry Lyndon, by Thackeray — 20 

Eyre’s Acquittal 10 

Twenty Thousand Leagues Un- 
der the Sea, by Jules Verne 20 

Anti-Slavery Days, by James 

Freeman Clarke 20 

Beauty’s Daughters, by The 

Duchess 20 

Be>ond the Sunrise 20 

Hard Times, by Charles Dickens.20 
Tom Cringle’s Log, byM. Scott.. 20 
Vanity Fair, by W.M.Thackeray.20 
Underground Russia, Stepniak. .20 
Middlemarch, by Elliot, PtI — 20 

Middlemarch, Part II 20 

Sir Tom, by Mrs. Oliphant 20 

Pelham, by Lord Lytton 20 

The Story of Ida 10 

Madcap Violet, by Wm. Black.. 20 

The Little Pilgrim 10 

Kilmeny, by Wm. Black 20 

Whist, or Bumblepuppy ? 10 

The Beautiful Wretch, Black 20 

Her Mother’s Sin, by B, M. Clay.20 
Green Pastures and Piccadilly, . 

by Wm. Black 20 

The Mysterious Island, by Jules 

Verne, Part 1 15 

The Mysterious Island, Part II. .15 
The Mysterious Island, Part 111.1 5 
Tom Brown at Oxford, Part I ... 1 5 
Tom Brown at Oxi ord, Part II . . 1 5 
Thicker than Water, by J. Payn.2 1 
In Silk Attire, by Wm. Black. ..20 
Scottish Chiefs.Jane Porter, Pt.I.20 

Scottish Chiefs, Part II 20 

Willy Reilly, by Will Carleton..20 
The Nautz Family, by Shelley .20 
Great Expectations, by Dickens.^'O 
Peudenni8,by Thackeray, Part 1.20 
Pendenni8,by Thackeray, Part 11.20 

Widow Bedott Papers 20 

Daniel Derouda,Geo. Eliot, Pt. 1.20 

Daniel Deronda, Part II 20 

AltioraPeto, by Oliphant 20 

By the Gate of the Sea, by David 

Christie Murray 15 

Tales of a Traveller, by Irving. . .20 
Life and Voyages of Columbus, 
by Washington Irving, Part I. .20 
Life and Voyages of Columbus, 
by Washington Irving, Part 11.20 

The Pilgrim’s Progress ... 20 

Martin Chuzzlewit, by Charles 

Dickens, Part 1 20 

Martin Chuzzlewit, Part II 20 

Theophrastus Such. Geo. Eliot.. .20 
Disarmed, M. Betham-EdwardB..15 
Eugene Aram, by Lord Lytton. 20 
The Spanish Gypsy and Other 

Poems, by George Eliot 20 

Cast Up by the Sea Baker 20 

Mill on the Floss, Eliot, Pt. I. ..15 

Mill on the Floss, Part 11 15 

Brother Jacob, and Mr. Gilfil’s 
Love Story, by George Eliot. . .10 
Wrecks in the Sea of Life 20 


QECRET 

W-/ OF 

gEAUTY. 

How to Beautify the Complexion. 

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Price, 75c. per Bottle. Depot, 83 JoUn St., N. IT. 



FAIR FACES, 

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those kept rnssH and pubb by the use of 

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Cleans and preserves the teeth; cools and refreshes the mouth; swi-etens the 
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CARBOLIC MEDICINAL SOAP cure* all 
Bruptions and Skin Diseases. 







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